China report warns of greenhouse gas leap - Reuters

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

China report warns of greenhouse gas leap
Wed Oct 22, 2008 1:27am EDT

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's greenhouse gas pollution
could double or more in two decades says a new
Chinese state think-tank study that casts stark light
on the industrial giant's role in stoking global
warming.

Beijing has not released recent official data on
greenhouse gas from the nation's fast-growing use of
coal, oil and gas. Researchers abroad estimate that
China's carbon dioxide emissions now easily outstrip
that of the United States, long the biggest emitter.

But in a break with official reticence, researchers
from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other
major state-run institutes have concluded that,
without dramatic counter-steps, their nation's
emissions will tower over all others' much sooner
than an earlier government forecast.

-snip-

By 2020, China's burning of fossil fuels could emit
carbon dioxide equal in mass to 2.5 billion metric
tonnes of pure carbon and up to 2.9 billion tonnes,
depending on varying scenarios for development and
technology. By 2030, those emissions may reach 3.1
billion tonnes and up to 4.0 billion tonnes.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE49L0Z920081022

[Barrett808]

1. That's just...great. n/t