China cuts energy intensity, but overall energy growth continues, report notes

Abstract

A new report states that China has cut its energy intensity—defined as energy use per unit of economic output—by 19.1% from 2006 to 2010, reversing the previous upward trend. However, energy use and carbon emissions in the country continue to grow sharply, according to the Climate Policy Initiative's (CPI)Annual Review of Low‐Carbon Development in China: 2010, the second of such reports. China nearly hit its goal of a 20% target reduction in energy intensity during that time period, which spanned the country's eleventh Five‐Year Period (FYP) for social and economic development, but during that same period energy‐related growth in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in China increased by 33.6%, from 5.15 billion tons to 6.88 billion tons, said Qi Ye, CPI's Beijing office director, at a 2 February briefing held at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D. C.