Carbon emission accounting from rural energy consumption in China

Rural energy related carbon emissions have not been considered sufficiently so far. Based on the interpretation of relationship between rural energy system and the national energy system, the carbon emission associated with rural energy consumption was calculated and analyzed with regard to their historical variances of total amount, structure and proportion of national energy related emission. The results showed that the CO2 emissions in rural China have constantly increased from 8.89′108 tons in 1979 to 28.74′108 tons in 2007. Commercial energy has become the dominant force of CO2 emissions in rural China, most of which is mainly derived from the consumption of coal and electricity. The proportion of carbon emissions from rural areas to nationwide has maintained a great high proportion from 40%-60%, declined since 2002 but still up to 40.99% in 2007. Even though the carbon emission from biomass consumption was excluded, the proportion was still 25%-48%, and underwent an inverted U-curve trend, with a peak at 47.40% in 2000. Therefore, measures of energy-saving and emission-reduction in rural areas should be incorporated into the overall national strategy and the carbon contribution of rural energy should not be ignored.