China denied a report that it had surpassed the United States last year to become the world’s largest energy user. There were reports citing the International Energy Agency (IEA), China last year consumed 2.252 billion tonnes of oil equivalent of energy from sources including coal, oil, natural gas, hydro and nuclear power, about 4 per cent more than the US.

But Zhou Xian, spokesperson for China’s National Energy Administration, said that the IEA’s estimate of China’s energy consumption was too high, although he declined to give an alternative estimate. The IEA estimate, he said, “could be used as a reference but is not very credible”.

“We believe that (IEA) did not understand fully the Chinese situation, in particular the efforts China made in energy saving, emission reductions and development in new energy sources,” said Zhou. The IEA cautioned that the energy use figures for China last year were still preliminary, but that the trend was clear, said the report.

In 2000, the US the world’s largest economy, consumed twice as much energy as China, but China, which is the world’s third-largest economy, now consumes more than the US, the Financial Times report quoted Fatih Birol, the IEA’s chief economist, as saying. China’s rise to the top ranking was faster than had been expected in part because the United States has outpaced China in improving energy efficiency measures over the past decade, the paper said.

During the period, the US had improved efficiency in energy use by 2.5 per cent annually while China only managed 1.7 per cent annual improvement. China’s energy demand growth has largely braved the global financial crisis that hit the US and Europe.

Zhou added that China has already exceeded the US in the pace of new energy utilisation. China has the world’s largest installed capacity of hydropower, the largest solar use for water heating, the largest capacity of nuclear power generators under construction and the fastest growth in wind power development, he said.                                                                                                                 Agencies

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