China overtakes U.S. as biggest energy consumer: IEA

Reuters China has become the world's largest energy user, having overtaken the United States, the head of the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday. "China is now the largest energy consumer by our definition," the executive director of IEA, Nobuo Tanaka
"Probably half of the oil demand increase comes from China. Nobody knows when it (will) slow down."

More on The Energy China Syndrome

• China energy depletion - net importer of oil & U.S. coal ?
• China, setting the world's oil prices .

1994, the International Energy Agency released a statistic that attracted little attention but years later would transform oil markets and the global economy. China, the west's energy watchdog said at the time, had just become "a net importer of oil on an annual basis for the first time since the 1960s".

 EPIC - The energy depletion and environmental consequences are game changing.