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Global change

China at the carbon crossroads

Nature volume 458, pages 977–979 (2009)Cite this article

In China, as in other nations that produce carbon dioxide from fossil fuels on a large scale, the terrestrial biosphere mops up a proportion of the emissions. Estimates of the amounts involved are now available.

According to recent estimates1,2, in late 2006 China overtook the United States as the world's number one emitter of carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas. This dubious honour highlighted the swift growth of CO2 emissions in China, much of that growth being due to rapid industrialization fuelled by coal-powered energy and cement manufacturing (during which especially large amounts of CO2 are produced).

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Figure 1: Carbon comparison between China and the United States.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kevin Robert Gurney is in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907, USA. kgurney@purdue.edu,

    Kevin Robert Gurney

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  1. Kevin Robert Gurney
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Gurney, K. China at the carbon crossroads. Nature 458, 977–979 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/458977a

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