China's CO2 emissions have been plummeting lately

The U.S. has much higher CO2 emissions per person than China.

http://www.vox.com/2015/5/22/8645455/china-emissions-coal-drop

Updated by Brad Plumer on May 22, 2015

Arguably the most important climate story in the world right now is the question of what's happening in China. A recent analysis by Greenpeace International found that China's carbon dioxide emissions have plunged nearly 5 percent, year over year, in the first four months of 2015:

That's ... unexpected. Ever since 2000, China's CO2 emissions have been rising at a relentless pace, as the country rocketed itself out of poverty by burning billions of tons of coal for electricity, heat, and industry. China is now the world's biggest CO2 emitter, getting two-thirds of its energy from coal, and officials have long assumed emissions would keep rising until 2030 or so. It's a big reason global warming forecasts look so dire.

But suddenly, China's emissions are falling, spurred by a sharp decline in coal use. As Greenpeace's Lauri Myllyvirta explains, China's coal consumption dropped in 2014 for the first time this century. Then, in the first four months of 2015, coal use fell another 8 percent, year on year — which translates to a roughly 5 percent decline in CO2 emissions.

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1) Be very, very wary of China's energy statistics

This caveat deserves to go up high. Glen Peters, a researcher at the University of Oslo, pointed out that China's coal consumption numbers are notoriously unreliable, and often get revised significantly years later.

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2) The 2014 coal drop was likely due to a surge of hydropower and dip in industrial activity

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3) China is trying to shift away from heavy industry — but it's not yet clear what that means for coal

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4) China's coal trajectory can have a big impact on climate change

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