China tackles the health effects of air pollution

With fast economic growth over the past three decades, China became the world's second largest economy in terms of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2010 and was the world's biggest energy consumer in 2009. In 2012, China's total energy consumption reached 2·43 billion tonnes oil equivalent, and its per-capita GDP energy consumption was 1·4 times higher than the world average. Coal is the main source of energy in China and accounts for 67% of the country's total energy consumption; in 2012, consumption of coal reached as high as 1·63 billion tonnes oil equivalent, accounting for 50% of the world's total coal consumption. The number of on-road civilian vehicles in China increased from 16·09 million in 2000 to 93·56 million in 2011. China's heavy chemical and petrochemical industries have been growing robustly over the past 10 years. The country's current cement and crude steel production capacity total 1·7 billion tonnes and more than 1 billion tonnes, respectively.