Greenhouse gas intensity of national economies

http://maps.grida.no/go/graphic/greenhouse-gas-intensity-of-national-economies1

COUNTRIES

As with everyone else, the bottom line for countries is to save money, and one way of doing that is by saving energy. An example is China, which has announced that it will invest 1.5 trillion yuan (US$193 thousand million) by making existing buildings more energy efficient by 2020 so as to save millions of tonnes of coal. Warning that wasted energy was slowing economic growth, the Vice-Minister of Construction, Qiu Baoxing, said 350 million tonnes of coal could be saved in 15 years if existing buildings were renovated to make them more efficient, and if new buildings met green standards.

From 1980 to 2006 China’s energy consumption increased by 5.6 per cent annually, boosting the 9.8 per cent annual growth in its economy. But energy consumption for every 10 000 yuan of GDP dropped from 3.39 tonnes of standard coal in 1980 to 1.21 tonnes in 2006, an annual energy-saving rate 3.9 per cent.