Energy Intensity and Its Policy Implications in China

Abstract

The Copenhagen Conference on climate change in 2009 stressed the need to support developing countries in employing energy-saving technologies. According to International Energy Agency (IEA, 2007) projections, developing countries whose economies and populations are growing fastest contribute 74 per cent of the increase in global primary energy use in the Reference Scenario between 2005 and 2030.¹ China and India alone account for 45 per cent of this increase. More recently the US Energy Information Administration (EIA, 2011) forecasts that energy demand in the OECD economies will grow at an average annual rate of 0.6 per cent over the projection period (2008–35), whereas energy consumption in the non-OECD emerging economies will expand by an average of 2.3 per cent per year. Energy use in non-OECD Asia (led by China and India) shows the most robust growth of all the non-OECD regions. Thus, as you can see in Figure 10.1, China will play a major role in driving energy consumption growth in the medium to long term.