March 2015
Climate Change And Energy Security
China’s energy picture has changed dramatically, but in contradictory ways, since it was cast as the villain of the failed climate talks in Copenhagen in 2009. On one side, the nation’s energy use and carbon emissions have continued to grow, and China is now the world’s biggest importer of oil and by far the largest emitter of greenhouse gases. But on the other, energy efficiency and pollution reduction policies have started to bite. Along with the economy’s shift away from industry and towards services, these forces have pushed the rate of energy consumption growth far below GDP growth. And, in a surprising development, China’s coal use fell by nearly 3% last year – the first decline since 1998. This raises the possibility that China’s coal consumption has already peaked, a decade earlier than most analysts had forecast.
This issue of CEQ examines China’s energy situation in the aftermath of the joint announcement last October by Presidents Xi and Obama that they will work to forge a major international deal at this year’s climate talks in Paris.
Also in this issue:
- Arthur Kroeber argues that Xi Jinping’s policies may keep the economy humming but will stifle innovation
- Simon Cartledge deconstructs the latest China conspiracy theory to emerge from America’s military-paranoia complex, Michael Pillsbury’s The Hundred Year Marathon