China Energy Outlook 2020 - Flipbook - Page 53
Figure 1-30. China’s CO2 Emissions per Unit of Energy Consumed (1980-2018)
Source: NBS, various years (b); IPCC, 2006.
Note: Energy data from NBS are converted to CO2 emissions using IPCC emissions factors. Y-axis is not zero-based.
Figure 1-30 shows that China’s carbon intensity – defined as CO2 emissions per unit of energy
consumed - was flat between 1980 and 1995, and then began to decrease slowly between 1996
and 2010, at a rate of -0.3% per year. In the last eight years, China’s power sector has started to
decarbonize with Chinese government support for renewable energy and nuclear power, and as
a result the carbon intensity of China’s energy consumption has declined faster, decreasing 1%
per year from 2011 to 2018.
With its heavy reliance on fossil fuels – especially coal - in its energy mix, China’s overall CO2
emissions per unit of primary energy consumption in 2018 was the highest among the regions
and selected countries shown in Figure 1-31. Japan’s energy supply is also highly CO2 intensive
largely due to the closure of nuclear plants after the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, such
that non-fossil electricity only accounted for around 5% of Japan’s total primary energy supply
in 2016. The CO2 intensity of the total primary energy supply in the U.S. is lower than that of
China and Japan, mostly due to its relatively higher shares of renewables and nuclear power.
While China’s total primary energy use per capita is one-third that of the U.S. and half that of
OECD countries, China’s heavy reliance on fossil fuels means that its energy-related CO2
emissions per capita are not as low (Figure 1-32). In 2016, the energy-related CO2 emissions per
capita in China were about 44% of the level in the U.S. and 73% of the level in OECD countries.
China’s CO2 emissions per capita are 50% higher than the world average and four times higher
than the average level in non-OECD Asia countries.
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