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China now has a higher per capita energy consumption than Europe, according to a report by the Energy Institute in the World Energy Statistical Review.
The reshuffle in energy use rankings was driven by increased demand from the industrial sector of the economy. At the same time, higher prices led to a decline in energy demand from European industrial producers.
The Energy Institute noted in its report that while energy consumption has increased, carbon intensity has fallen. China is the world leader in building new coal-fired power plants, but it is also the world leader in adding wind and solar power capacity, the authors noted. Last year, these increases exceeded the new wind and solar power capacity added by the rest of the world combined, leading to a downward trend in carbon intensity.
At the same time, China produced more than half of the world’s total coal output last year. Together with India, Indonesia and Australia, they accounted for 97% of global coal production last year. They are also the largest consumer of the energy resource, accounting for 56% of the total. But India is catching up, consuming more coal last year than Europe and North America combined, the report also found.
China has announced plans to peak its carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and become a net-zero economy by 2060. A massive increase in wind and solar power is part of that plan, although China is still building coal and nuclear and consuming all forms of energy.
Last year China commissioned as much new solar PV as the world’s total for 2022, and new wind power additions rose 66% from the previous year, according to a recent IEA report. Chinese investment in transition technologies accounted for a third of the global total for that year.
By Irina Slav of Oilprice.com
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