Energy

China now world's largest energy user:IEA

(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-07-20 10:22

China overtook the United States last year to become the world's largest energy user, the Financial Times reported on Monday, citing the International Energy Agency.

The IEA warned that the energy use figures for China last year were still preliminary, but that the trend was clear, the newspaper reported.

In 2000, the United States -- the world's largest economy?-- consumed twice as much energy as China, but China, which is now the world's third-largest economy, now consumes more than the United States, the report quoted Fatih Birol, the IEA's chief economist, as saying.

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China last year consumed 2.252 billion tons of oil equivalent of energy from sources including coal, oil, natural gas, hyrdro and nuclear power, about 4 percent more than the United States, the IEA told the paper.