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China is world's No 1 consumer

But are global resources being depleted at unsustainable levels?

Friday • February 18, 2005

WASHINGTON — China is quickly overtaking the United States as the
world's biggest consumer of global resources, energised by a dynamic
economy that is growing at a record pace, said Washington-based research
group Earth Policy Institute in a report.

"If the last century was the American century, this one looks to be the
Chinese century," said Mr Lester Brown, founder of the institute and
author of the report, titled China Replacing United States as World's
Biggest Consumer.

"China is no longer just a developing country. It is an emerging
economic superpower, one that is writing economic history."

The report points to China's increasing consumption patterns and
expanding influence on the US economy. Mr Brown says these trends are an
early warning that China's rapid growth could lead to an unsustainable
use of global resources.

America still maintains a wide lead over China in terms of individual
consumption patterns, mainly due to its much lower per capita income of
US$5,300 ($8,700) — about one-seventh the US$38,000 of the US.

However, the report predicted that as Chinese incomes rise at a record
pace, use of foodstuffs, energy, and raw materials — and sales of
consumer goods — would continue to climb.

"We are learning that the Western industrial development model — a
fossil fuel-based, automobile-centred, throwaway economy — is not going
to work for China and therefore for the world," said Mr Brown.

For example, if paper use per person in China were to reach American
levels, China would need more paper than the entire world produces, he
said.

The report said China is outpacing the US in consumption of four of the
five most important commodities: Grain, meat, coal and steel. The fifth,
oil, is still consumed in the US at rates triple that of China at about
20.4 million barrels per day.

But while oil use in the US rose by 15 per cent from 1994 to 2004, use in
the Asian giant more than doubled over the same period. China has now
surpassed Japan as the world's second-largest consumer of oil after the
US, said the report.

It said it was only a matter of time before China becomes the biggest
guzzler of oil. — IPS

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