Material Flow Analysis of Fossil Fuels in China during 2000–2010

• Published in: TheScientificWorld 2012-01, Vol.2012 (2012), p.1-8
• Main Authors: Wang, Sheng, Dai, Jing, Su, Meirong
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accounting; Carbon - analysis; Carbon Dioxide - analysis; China; Coal; Coal - analysis; Coal - utilization; Conservation of Natural Resources - methods; Conservation of Natural Resources - statistics & numerical data; Conservation of Natural Resources - trends; Consumption; Economic development; Economic growth; Ecosystem; Ecosystems; Energy; Energy consumption; Environmental economics; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Environmental Monitoring - statistics & numerical data; Environmental science; Fossil fuels; Fossil Fuels - statistics & numerical data; Fossil Fuels - utilization; Fuel consumption; Fuels; GDP; Gross Domestic Product; Humans; Indexes (ratios); Natural gas; Natural Gas - statistics & numerical data; Natural Gas - utilization; Natural resources; Nonrenewable resources; Petroleum - statistics & numerical data; Petroleum - utilization; Productivity; Recycling - methods; Recycling - statistics & numerical data; Recycling - trends; Residential energy; Resource consumption; Society; Supply & demand; Sustainable development
• ISSN: 2356-6140; 1537-744X; 1537-744X
• DOI: 10.1100/2012/625828

Since the relationship between the supply and demand of fossil fuels is on edge in the long run, the contradiction between the economic growth and limited resources will hinder the sustainable development of the Chinese society. This paper aims to analyze the input of fossil fuels in China during 2000–2010 via the material flow analysis (MFA) that takes hidden flows into account. With coal, oil, and natural gas quantified by MFA, three indexes, consumption and supply ratio (C/S ratio), resource consumption intensity (RCI), and fossil fuels productivity (FFP), are proposed to reflect the interactions between population, GDP, and fossil fuels. The results indicated that in the past 11 years, China’s requirement for fossil fuels has been increasing continuously because of the growing mine productivity in domestic areas, which also leads to a single energy consumption structure as well as excessive dependence on the domestic exploitation. It is advisable to control the fossil fuels consumption by energy recycling and new energy facilities’ popularization in order to lead a sustainable access to nonrenewable resources and decrease the soaring carbon emissions.