Explanation on China's Energy Consumption in 2009

National Bureau of Energy National Bureau of Statistics

Explanation on China's Energy Consumption in 2009

Recently, some media reported that “China surpassed the United States as the world’s largest energy consumer in 2009” and attracted widespread attention and comments both at home and abroad. Prior to this, the National Bureau of Statistics released data on energy consumption in 2009. In order to objectively introduce the actual situation, the National Energy Administration and the National Bureau of Statistics now clarify the relevant data on energy consumption in 2009.

In 2009, China's energy supply and demand experienced a gradual recovery from the low point after the international financial crisis to the recovery of the economy, as well as the steady growth after the national economy stabilized and recovered.

According to preliminary statistics, in 2009, the country’s primary energy production totaled 2.75 billion tons of standard coal, an increase of 5.2% over the previous year, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from the previous year, and a total energy consumption of 3.066 billion tons of standard coal, an increase of 5.2%. 1.3 percentage points.

China is in a period of rapid industrial and urbanization, and energy consumption is still growing. In recent years, in order to reduce the dependence of economic growth on energy, the country has vigorously promoted various energy conservation and emission reduction policies and measures, actively adjusted the industrial structure, and accelerated the elimination of outdated production capacity. The overall energy consumption growth rate has generally slowed year by year, and the intensity of energy consumption has been declining. With a relatively low growth in energy consumption, the steady and relatively rapid development of the national economy has been supported. From 2004 to 2009, China's total energy consumption growth rate fell from 16.1% to 5.2%, a drop of 10.9%, an average annual drop of 2.18 percentage points. In the first four years of the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan”, China’s energy consumption per ten thousand yuan GDP was reduced from 1.276 tons of standard coal to 1.077 tons of standard coal, which fell 2.74%, 5.04%, 5.20%, and 3.61% year-on-year, respectively, with a cumulative decline of 15.61%. Both decreased by 4.15%. According to the international method, China's energy consumption in 2009 was converted into 2.146 billion tons of standard oil and 1.61 tons of standard oil per capita. According to the data released by the US Energy Information Administration website at the end of July, the total energy consumption in the United States in 2009 was 2.382 billion tons of standard oil. According to official data released by the US and China, China’s total energy consumption in 2009 was more than 200 million tons of standard oil less than that of the United States, and per capita consumption was about one-fifth that of the United States.

National Energy Board

National Bureau of Statistics

August 11, 2010

Note:

The concept of total energy consumption and its accounting method

I. The concept of total energy consumption

The total amount of energy consumption refers to the sum of all kinds of energy consumed by certain sectors of the national economy and households in a certain period of time, including various resources that can be obtained directly from nature or obtained through processing or conversion: raw coal, crude oil Primary energy sources such as natural gas, natural gas, hydropower, nuclear energy, wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, and biomass energy; secondary energy sources such as coal washing, coke, coal gas, electricity, heat, and refined oil produced by primary energy through processing and conversion Other products; other fossil energy, renewable energy and new energy. Among them, renewable energy such as hydropower, wind energy, solar energy, geothermal energy, and biomass energy refers to the energy of commodities that people obtain through certain technological means; nuclear energy is only included as part of energy use.

Second, the method of accounting for total energy consumption

The principle of accounting for total energy consumption is that primary energy and secondary energy must not be recalculated.

According to this principle, the total energy consumption is mainly calculated using the following two approaches:

(I) Accounting from the perspective of supply

Basic statistical indicators for accounting: primary energy production, inventory of various energy sources, imports, exports, energy consumption of major energy-consuming industries and products.

Total Energy Consumption = Primary Energy Production + (Imported Quantity - Export Volume) + (Starting Inventory - Ending Inventory) = Primary Energy Production ± Net Import (Out) Quantity ± Inventory Reduction (Increase) Quantity

This method is relatively simple and mostly used in the accounting of quarterly and annual preliminary data.

(II) Accounting from the perspective of consumption

The basic statistical indicators for accounting are: terminal energy consumption of various industries and residents' lives in the national economy, input conversion of energy processing, conversion and output of energy processing, and loss during transportation and management.

Total energy consumption = terminal energy consumption + input for processing conversion - output for processing conversion + energy loss during transportation and management

This accounting method requires detailed data on energy consumption and is used in annual statistics.

In addition, according to the energy balance model, an energy balance sheet must be prepared for annual accounting, and detailed calculations should be carried out simultaneously from the aspects of resource supply (production, import, export, inventory), processing conversion, and final consumption.

III. Sources of data for the calculation of total energy consumption

The data on energy product output and finished product inventory in the total energy consumption is obtained from surveys of all production companies through the production, sales, and inventory statistics survey reports for industrial products. Import volume and export volume were obtained from customs statistics. The above-scale industrial energy consumption, processing conversion input, processing conversion output, and inventory are obtained from the survey of all companies within the scope of the above-scale industrial energy purchasing, consumption, and inventory survey reports. The energy consumption of wholesale and retail enterprises above the designated size was obtained from the survey of all enterprises within the scope of the statistical reports on energy purchasing, consumption and inventories of wholesale and retail enterprises. The inventory of circulation enterprises was obtained from the survey of all energy wholesale and retail trade enterprises through the statistical reports on energy purchase, sales and inventory of wholesale and retail enterprises. Other aspects of energy consumption and loss differed from each other and were obtained through sample surveys or key surveys.