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China - the World's Largest Emitter of Greenhouse Gases

Anyone looking for why the world should care about China's economy and its propensity to grow at double-digit rates may have found it not in Beijing on the 19th April 2007, but in Paris, at the International Energy Agency （IEA）.

According to the IEA, the country – whose economy expanded by 11.1 per cent in the first quarter – could overtake the US as the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases in 2007 or in 2008. This is at least 12 months earlier than its recent estimate of 2009.

“If Chinese coal consumption continues to surprise the world, it could be well before 2009. China's CO2 emissions per capita remain relatively small, about an eighth of those in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. But if China maintains strong growth its emissions alone until 2030 will be double that of all other industrialised countries combined.

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