Carbon dioxide and methane emissions in China have declined in recent years, according to a report by a team of US and Chinese researchers.
The report, which appeared in Friday's US journal of Science, says the reductions are partly due to a reform of the country's coal and energy industries, and probably also to the Asian economic crisis of 1997-1998.
Authors of the report used recent energy and other statistical data to estimate the annual trends in China's greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 to 2000. They calculated that carbon dioxide declined by 7.3 percent, and methane declined by 2.2 percent during this period.
China's change in energy use involved several aspects, including improved efficiency of energy end-use, improved coal quality, switching by many residential fuel users from goal to gas and electricity, technological progress in the energy-intensive sectors, and opening up coal and electricity markets, says the report.
( December 3, 2001)
