In 2005, the Chinese government announced an ambitious goal of reducing energyconsumption per unit of GDP by 20% between 2005 and 2010. One of the key initiatives forrealizing this goal is the Top-1000 Energy-Consuming Enterprises program. The energyconsumption of these 1000 enterprises accounted for 33% of national and 47% of industrialenergy usage in 2004. Under the Top-1000 program, 2010 energy consumption targets weredetermined for each enterprise. The objective of this article is to evaluate the program designand initial results, given limited information and data, in order to understand the possibleimplications of its success in terms of energy and carbon dioxide emissions reductions and torecommend future program modifications based on international experience with similartarget-setting agreement programs. Even though the Top-1000 Program was designed andimplemented rapidly, it appears that – depending upon the GDP growth rate -- it couldcontribute to somewhere between approximately 10% and 25% of the savings required tosupport China's efforts to meet a 20% reduction in energy use per unit of GDP by 2010.