China has overtaken the United States as the world's largest consumer of energy, according to the International Energy Agency. The country's use of coal, oil, wind and other power sources more than doubled in the past decade, reaching the equivalent of 2.26 billion tonnes of oil in 2009, compared with the US total of 2.17 billion tonnes.
The milestone marks a major shift in the global balance of power. Energy use is closely linked to carbon dioxide emissions and economic expansion. The US had been the world's biggest energy user since records began. The Chinese government has challenged the figure, but the trend is unmistakable: while most developed nations suffered flat or negative economic growth last year, China's GDP rose by 8.7%.
The bulk of China's energy demand comes from industry and infrastructure, but individual consumption is also rising. Chinese citizens are buying more air conditioners, microwave ovens, TVs, computers and cars than ever before. Last year, China surpassed the US as the country that sold the most new cars. However, the average person's energy use in China is still only a quarter of that in the US.
One conspicuous symbol of China's growing energy consumption is a giant LED screen at The Place retail centre in Beijing. The 250-metre-long screen, modelled on a larger one in Las Vegas, displays personal messages and consumes about 1,500 kW of electricity—150,000 times that of a 10-watt energy-saving bulb.
The government is trying to reduce the environmental impact by promoting renewable energy. State media said China would spend about 5 trillion yuan on clean energy in the next decade and reduce its dependency on coal from 70% to 63% by 2015. Domestic scientists also claimed a breakthrough in the development of a new generation of nuclear power.
