Is China going to be the next major city caused the Global warming - Essay Example

China’s economic development has been inevitably dependent on the consumption of coal for energy. Energy consumption and economic development, and in turn environmental issues in China have been interrelated. Coal is the main source of energy and burning of coal leads to emission of green house gases. This is what has lead to the negative effects of China’s economic development on global warming. China has surpassed USA as the world’s leading emitter of green house gases (Landsberg, 2011).

Globally, there has been a constant increase in the demand for energy. So is the case with China. As the population of China has been increasing so is its demand for energy. Also the economic growth is fuelled by this increase in the demand for energy. Economic growth is driven by industrialization and this leads to higher energy consumption. In china, the industrialization process is relatively young and is expected to grow. This means that the already high energy intensity in China will still increase.

Therefore, as the economic growth curve goes upwards so does the energy demand and in turn energy consumption. As mentioned above, China with its huge population consumes enormous energy. This enormous energy consumption is the primary reason behind China’s negative impact on global warming. . is the emission green house gases). According to Zhang Zhongxiang, China’s GDP will go down by 2% if there is a decrease of 10-20% in the green house gases emission. Also there will be a 1.29% increase in the emission of the green house gases when there is a 51% increase in the per capita income (Yu, 2008).

This establishes the theory that China’s economic development has lead to an enormous increase in the emission of green house gases and in turn leading to global warming. Energy demand elasticity is an important factor in analyzing the relation between energy consumption or demand and the economic development. Energy demand elasticity is the ratio of energy demand growth to GDP growth. From 1978 to 2000, China’s energy demand elasticity was less than .5. But from 2001 to 2006 it rose to 1.5. This shows how the rapid economic development is associated with higher energy consumption.

Another important evidence of the relationship between China’s economic development and global warming is the fact that the green house gas emissions had gone up 18 times in 1989 when compared to the 1952 emissions and the 2010 emissions is more than double the emissions in 1996. China’s economic development has been pointing upward since the reforms in 1970. Hence, there is a clear connection between economic development and global warming (gas emissions) (Hackett, 1998). Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency’s 2006 report found out that China was now the major contributor to the global greenhouse gas emissions.

It has now overtaken USA and is the world’s leading emitter of green house gases with a margin of 8%. 2007 saw a 2.6% growth in the global emissions and China was responsible for