Chapter 8

China

Energy Efficiency Where it Really Matters

Mark Levine, Nan Zhou, David Fridley, Lynn Price and Nina Zheng, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

1 Introduction

As the world’s most populous country and the second-largest economy, China’s energy use and energy-related CO2 emissions have been interlinked with its unprecedented economic growth and urbanization. Since economic reforms were first initiated in the late 1970s, China has continued to experience double-digit economic growth with current nominal GDP totaling nearly U.S. $7.3 trillion despite a relatively low per capita GDP of only U.S. $5,184 in 2011. Since China is still in the early stage of industrialization and modernization, the process of economic development will continue ...

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