ABSTRACT
China’s economic reform dates back to 1978 when the central government decided to turn the focus of the nation from political campaigns to economic development. From 1978 to 2000, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) was quadrupled, and the energy consumption was doubled. Thus the energy intensity was cut by half. As the nation entered the new century, the accelerated industrialization posed new challenges in energy use, the share of energy-intensive heavy industry increased quickly (Figure 6.1), and the overall energy intensity reversed from a decreasing trend to a sharp increase. The energy intensity (measured by energy consumption per unit GDP) increased by 4.8 percent in 2003 and by 5.5 percent in 2004. In 2005 the energy intensity was back to the 1999 level. The two consecutive years of increase canceled out the achievement in energy intensity reduction from 1999 to 2005. GDP in 2005 increased by 70 percent compared to that of 1999. Should such a high growth rate continue into the future, energy consumption and carbon emissions would increase dramatically without an effective control, posing a severe challenge to energy supply, environmental quality, and greenhouse gas emissions for China as well as for the world. Growth rate of light industry and heavy industry (1990–2010) https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203383353/ab06a154-4c0c-4d6f-9989-a7741e3da853/content/fig6_1_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> (source: NBS 1990–2010).
