Per dollar of GDP, China has cut its carbon emission levels in half since 1980. Switching from coal to natural gas would also dramatically lower carbon dioxide emissions and improve air quality. Government plans indicate ambitious future expansions of 15,000 MW per year to meet excess demand for electricity. Seventy-five percent of electric power in China is generated by fossil fuels, mainly coal. Industrial boilers, which account for one-third of China's coal use, offer opportunities to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants.
China has large renewable energy resources.
Most significantly, installed wind power capacity is 240 MW and rising rapidly. Both China and the U.S. have signed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, though neither country has ratified the Protocol. Both countries are Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. China faces severe deforestation problems, which contributed to the devastating floods during the summer of 1998.