Evaluating newly added embodied energy inventory of China and the United States: An economic input-output LCA model

China and the United States are the top two largest energy consumers, but they have totally different energy consumption patterns. Firstly, newly added embodied energy inventory (NAEEI) is created based on the concept of embodied energy. We combine the improved economic input-output approach with LCA for modeling. NAEEI and its proportion to national aggregate primary energy consumption for the first decade of the 21st century of the two largest energy consumers were calculated. In 2001, China's annual NAEEI is 199.98 million tons of oil equivalents (toe). The figure soared to 908.50 million toe in 2010, with an average annual growth rate of 118.31%. Correspondingly, the proportion of NAEEI to China national aggregate primary energy consumption increased from 23.87% in 2001 to 37.35% in 2010, which implies that more and more energy have been embodied in fixed assets. By contrast, the United States holds only 37.29 million toe of the NAEEI, accounting for merely 1.65% of the national aggregate primary energy consumption. In 2010, the situation has not transformed, with the NAEEI of 32.38 million toe and the proportion of 1.42%, slightly decreasing compared to that of 2001. These statistics have shown us two totally different energy consumption patterns: U.S. for heavy instant consumption, light accumulation pattern and China for heavy accumulation, light instant consumption pattern. We name the proportion of the NAEEI to national aggregate primary energy consumption embodied energy accumulation (EEA) coefficient, which would be a number ranging from zero to one. Embodied energy accumulation coefficient can be taken as a concise criterion to demonstrate a country's economic development stage and energy consumption pattern. As for the huge gap of EEA coefficient between China and the United States, discrepancy in economic and social development, as well as investment-decision regimes are mainly to blame.