It's official: China, not the U.S., is now the world's top consumer of energy, according to a report released yesterday by the International Energy Agency.

Last year, China consumed 2.252 billion tons of oil-equivalent (which is a sum-total measure of all forms of energy, including crude oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear and even "green" energy sources like wind or solar). That's about 4 percent more than the U.S., which used 2.169 billion tons.

Granted, the U.S. still consumes the most energy per capita, with the average American consuming five times more energy each year than the average Chinese. And the U.S. still uses the most oil worldwide, consuming roughly 19 million barrels per day, compared with China's 9.2 million barrels per day. But these data haven't stopped the IEA from waxing philosophical.

"The fact that China overtook the U.S. as the world's largest energy consumer symbolizes the start of a new age in the history of energy," IEA chief economist Fatih Birol told the WSJ.

Strong words, indeed. But there's more to the story than meets the eye.

Behind The Numbers

At some level, what the IEA's data truly represent is just how hard the U.S. was hit by the 2008 global recession—a recession that China escaped mostly unscathed. After all, the IEA had predicted China would eventually assume the top energy consumption spot anyway, but not until 2015 or so. The recession just sped things up.

But on a more positive note, the numbers also reflect the U.S.' increasing energy efficiency, at least compared with China. Since 2000, the U.S. has improved its energy efficiency by 2.5 percent each year, while China has only improved by 1.7 percent, according to the Financial Times.

Indeed, many analysts have argued that increasing energy efficiency has led to the peak of energy demand in the States (and developed Western nations as a whole), and usage will flatten out in the future. Obviously, more efficient energy usage means less total energy being used.

At the same time, however, you can't dismiss the Chinese growth story from these numbers. For nearly a decade, China's energy consumption has grown by double digits annually, propelled by the nation's souped-up industrial capacity. Keep in mind that just 10 years ago, China's energy consumption was only half that of the U.S.

And that expansion shows no signs of slowing, either: The IEA also predicts that over the next 15 years, China will add about 1,000 gigawatts of electrical generation capacity—or the equivalent of the entire current U.S. capacity.

The end result of this growth is that China's particular energy demands have begun to redefine the way energy is used worldwide, from the kinds of cars that get made to how many solar panels or wind turbines are constructed.

It also means that global energy consumption will continue to stem from inefficient sources, at least for the time being. China's swelling energy usage isn't exactly efficient: The country may be the world leader in wind, solar and hydropower investment, but it still gets most of its electricity from coal. In 2007, China surpassed the U.S. as the world's top emitter of greenhouse gases.

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