Publication

This working paper examines the factors behind decrease in energy consumption per unit of GDP that has occurred in China since 1980. Structural change - from more to less energy intensive industrial subsectors - and real energy intensity change are posited as the two probable causes. The author finds that 88 percent of the cumulative energy savings between 1990 and 1997 can be attributed to real intensity change. The effects of GDP are also taken into consideration, and the findings are discovered to still be applicable.