China speeds towards 'biggest greenhouse gas producer' title

http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,,2064484,00.html

China could overtake the US as the globe's biggest producer of greenhouse gases later this year, far earlier than expected, one of the world's leading energy bodies warned today.

If left unchecked, within 25 years emissions from China will be double those of the combined output of the US, EU, Japan and all other industrialised nations, said Fatih Birol, chief economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA).

The Paris-based organisation, which advises wealthy countries on energy policy, had previously said China was on course to become the world's biggest such polluter no earlier than 2009.

But such is the country's untrammelled economic growth, much of it driven by coal-fired power stations, this could potentially happen within months, Mr Birol told Guardian Unlimited.

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