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China's carbon conundrum

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China's carbon dioxide emissions are rising fast. Yet, per capita, gross domestic product and energy use are only a fraction of their United States equivalents. With a growing urban middle class, the trend will continue, but there is progress on the path to a low-carbon economy.

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Figure 1: Long-term trend of energy intensity, showing energy-saving targets and results for each Five-Year Plan (FYP) period.
Figure 2: Effectiveness of low-carbon development policies.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ye Qi and Tong Wu are at the Climate Policy Institute and School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China,

    Ye Qi & Tong Wu

  2. Jiankun He is at the Institute for Low-Carbon Economy Research, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China and the China National Advisory Council on Climate Change, Beijing 100084, China,

    Jiankun He

  3. David A. King is at the Department of Chemistry, University of Cambridge, Lensfield Road, Cambridge CB2 1EW, UK,

    David A. King

Authors
  1. Ye Qi
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  2. Tong Wu
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  3. Jiankun He
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  4. David A. King
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tong Wu.

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Qi, Y., Wu, T., He, J. et al. China's carbon conundrum. Nature Geosci 6, 507–509 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo1870

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