In 2015, the nation’s total energy consumption reached 4.3 billion tons of standard coal, an increase of 6.9% over 2012. The average annual growth rate was 2.3%, which was 4.1 percentage points lower than the average annual growth rate from 2005 to 2012, indicating a slowdown in the growth of total energy consumption. Among these, coal consumption peaked at 4.24 billion tons in 2013 and then declined to 4.12 billion tons in 2014 and 3.96 billion tons in 2015, representing year-on-year decreases of 3.0% and 3.7%, respectively. In 2015, oil consumption totaled approximately 550 million tons, up 15.1% from 2012; natural gas consumption reached 193 billion cubic meters, an increase of 28.9%; and electricity consumption amounted to 5.6 trillion kilowatt-hours, up 13.9%.

From the perspective of energy consumption structure, the share of coal consumption has significantly declined, while the share of clean energy has risen, leading to a continuous optimization of the energy consumption mix. In 2015, coal accounted for 64.0% of total energy consumption, down 4.5 percentage points from 2012; oil accounted for 18.1%, up 1.1 percentage points from 2012; natural gas accounted for 5.9%, up 1.1 percentage points from 2012; primary electricity and other energy sources together accounted for 12%, up 2.3 percentage points from 2012; and clean energy consumption as a whole accounted for 17.9%, up 3.4 percentage points from 2012.

China's Energy Consumption from 2010 to 2015

Source: National Bureau of Statistics

China's Energy Consumption Structure in 2015