Climate Change: Energy Use

It's About Energy

Energy is at the heart of the global warming challenge. It is humanity's production and use of energy that is the primary cause of global warming, and in turn climate change will eventually affect our production and use of energy. Energy consumption soared by more than 5% in 2010, after the slight decrease of 2009. This strong increase is the result of two converging trends. One - Industrialized countries, which experienced sharp decreases in energy demand in 2009, recovered firmly in 2010. Oil, gas, coal, and electricity markets followed the same trend. Second - China and India, which showed no signs of slowing down in 2009, continued their intense demand for all forms of energy.

World Energy Mix The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) released a report September 19, 2011, which projects that world energy use will increase 53 percent from 2008 to 2035. The report says China and India will account for half of the projected increase.

Natural gas has the fastest growth rate among the fossil fuels over the 2008 to 2035 projection period. Petroleum and other liquid fuels will remain the largest global energy source with an increase of 26.9 million barrels per day. Global coal consumption will increase from 139 quadrillion Btu in 2008 to 209 quadrillion Btu in 2035. China will use a large chunk of that as they favor the cheaper form of energy derived from coal.

Renewable energy is projected to be the fastest growing source of primary energy over the next 25 years, but fossil fuels remain the dominant source of energy. Renewable energy consumption increases by 2.8 percent per year and the renewable share of total energy use increases from 10 percent in 2008 to 15 percent in 2035.

China's Impact

The Chinese government has included addressing climate change into its mid- and long-term planning for economic and social development as a major issue concerning its overall economic and social development. In 2006, China set forth the compulsive goal of reducing its per-unit GDP energy consumption in 2010 by 20 percent from that of 2005. In 2007, China became the first developing country to formulate and implement a national program to address climate change. In 2009, China put forward the goal of action to reduce the per-unit GDP greenhouse gas emission in 2020 by 40-45 percent as compared to that of 2005.

To accomplish the above goals, China adopted a range of major policy measures to mitigate and adapt to climate change during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2006-2010) period, and has achieved remarkable results. The Outline of the Twelfth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development released in 2011 established the policy orientation of promoting green and low-carbon development, and expressly set out the objectives and tasks of addressing climate change for the next five years. China has been playing a constructive role in international negotiations on climate change, actively pushing forward the negotiation process, thereby making a significant contribution to addressing global climate change.