Oops. 2002-09: China's Electrical Sector Improved Efficiency 10%; Sector Grew By 1,000%
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Reducing CO2 requires expensive technological improvements and takes a long time. So most of the provinces in China adopt the second way — enlarging GDP. One way to do this, for example, is to replace a small, inefficient coal power plant with a larger, more efficient modern plant. By doing this, they achieve energy efficiency improvements while boosting local GDP.
The problem, Guan says, is that the numbers can be misleading. The larger coal plant, while more efficient, produces more total emissions than the older, smaller plant. That means the province’s carbon intensity numbers improve even while its overall emissions rise. From 2002 to 2009, Chinese electricity producers improved technology efficiency by 10 percent. During the same period, however, the size of the electricity sector increased about 10 times. “The overall economic carbon intensity [improvement] is largely offset by such carbon-intensive production,” Guan explains.
As often happens with pollution and climate change problems, the lack of progress is due to backward incentives. Many new, coal-burning facilities in China were built with loans from provincial banks who see them as a sure-fire investment. In addition, regional governments push the local banks to lend money to the developers of heavy industry because performance assessments for individual officials prioritize GDP growth when deciding whether that official is suitable for promotion or not.
Essentially, demand for products isn't affecting these decisions as much as the concern by local officials that they hit the numbers for GDP growth. Unless this changes, Guan says, carbon emissions will keep going up.
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http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-10-18/despite-china-s-improved-energy-efficiency-rapid-growth-still-leading-increased
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What tune should we ask the band to play as we wait for the ship to go down? 
