BBC Chinese recently reported on the latest numbers for China’s carbon dioxide emissions. For the first time, emissions per capita exceeded the level in the EU. For a long time, China has maintained that the Chinese emissions level needed to remain high due to the country’s strong economic growth. However the Chinese government has always added that China’s per capita number was way below other large economies. From now on, this claim will no longer be true. At the present time, the total Chinese emissions level is higher than that of the United States and the European Union combined. A high ranking Chinese government official recently pointed out that China has been taking action to reduce emissions instead of just talking and that it is the lack of communication that has put China in a “misunderstood” position. According to the World Meteorological Organization, carbon dioxide emissions reached a record high in 2013.
Source: BBC Chinese, September 21, 2014
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2014/09/140921_china_emission.shtml