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China is now the largest energy consumer in the world according to IEA (International Energy Agency). USA has dropped to be only number two on the energy consumer top list. Not sure if that’s good or bad.

For over 20 years USA has been the number one energy consumer in the world and for only about 10 years ago China consumed about half of the energy consumed by USA. Forecasters had anticipated that China would pass the USA  as the world’s largest energy consumer in 2015, but due to the economic crisis that slowed the USA energy demand by so much that China could do it earlier.

According to IEA, China consumed 2.252 billion tons of oil equivalent*  last year, which is 4 percent more than the USA has had a total energy of 2.17 billion tonnes of oil equivalent. In 2008 China used more than 40 percent of the world’s coal and nearly half of the increase occurred in electricity consumption.

In 2007 China passed the USA in usage of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, and today there are not any other country in the world to emit as much as China. To address this growing problem, China has set targets to reduce its emissions intensity and improve energy efficiency. A tough challenge because the government would simultaneously increase GDP growth by four times by 2020.

USA is still the largest energy consumer if you look to the energy used per capita, and China only gets a 4th place in that ranking. If you consider that it took China about 10 years to double it’s energy usage and that China got a population of 1.3 billion while USA got only 310 millions you don’t need to be a scientist to figure out that energy is going to be a luxury in the future.

*  An energy measurement based on the energy content of average crude oil.

About the author
Andreas co-founded Xavier Media® in 1996 and has since been involved in all kinds of development, marketing and making money online.