China’s emissions of greenhouse gasses were about 54% of that of the United States as of 2004. On average, The People’s Republic of China is building the equivalent to one coal power plant per week. According to earlier predictions, the United States would not be beaten out by China until sometime between 2007 and 2010. However, China took the title of the country with the largest greenhouse gas emissions away from The United States, in 2006.
In June of 2007, the Chinese government released a sixty page climate change control plan. China is currently the largest consumer of solar energy as well as a large participant in the use of hydroelectric power. Chinese researchers are trying to develop better ways to use biomass/ biofuel because after studies, they concluded that there would be an extremely steep increase in the price of food.
China's energy demand is rapidly increasing with strong economic growth. China is also the third largest importer of oil behind the United States and Japan.
Right now in China, pollution from fossil fuels are damaging the quality of air and water and human health. China is not set under restrictions of the Kyoto Protocol because it is a non-Annex I country, and is not bound to any GHG emissions reduction targets. The country is to however supposed to try to increase use of renewable resources by 10% in 2010.
Links Used - EIPA, China Climate Change Info-Net, China Energy Group
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8 comments:
The effect pollution has on the water and soil in China is interesting. How is this pollution affecting the biodiversity in China?
This blog is well-worded and very easy to read. I did not realize that China played such a large role in Global Warming. I cannot wait to come back to this blog and read about more countries and their relationship to the climate change. What country is currently having the largest impact on Global Warming?
Is China the largest country researching and producing alternative uses of energy?
How will this affect the 2008 Olympics that are scheduled to take place in China?
Even though China is the leader in greenhouse gas production, due to their large alternative energy initiatives, is there percentage of green energy to emission producing forms more consistent with other nations or possibly even better?
Very interesting. I'm hoping that we can discuss "carbon credits" as a class. This means that a country like Great Britain can build a plant producing renewable energy in China but Great Britain gets the credit for reducing emissions. The whole process seems very confusing and very susceptible to abuse.
China is an extremely large country, and I did not realize the problems that they are causing our earth. Do you think that China is trying to recently put on a clean green face for the Olympics?
That was a very informative post on China however I am not sure what a non-Annex 1 country is?
A non-Annex I country is just a term for a country not bound to the Kyoto Protocol.
Mostly right now countries of the European Union are being credited with the best reductions of greenhouse gases and action against global warming thus far.
China is doing many things to try to prepare for the Olympics. They are banning driving in certain cities closer to the Olympic games and putting up a huge "go green" front. China however does not seem to be the largest researcher of alternative energy, although I never found any information saying who was or was not.
Many species of animals are dying out because of a lack of water and poor soil. This disruption effects the entire food chain and so species are dying off or decreasing drastically in population size.
No, they are still not using enough green energy to balance out all of the other energy they use and are constructing plants for daily. Currently, I would say that China is not ahead or behind because for every new and green energy source, there are many bad ones also still being used, just as much if not more.
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