A facility can purchase credits from large emitters that have reduced their emissions intensity beyond their 12 per cent target.

All covered industrial sectors will be required to reduce their emissions intensity from 2006 levels by 18% by 2010, with 2% continuous improvement every year after that.

When we consider tons of pollutants emitted per unit energy savings across regions, it is clear that there are substantial regional variations in emissions intensity of energy consumption (Figure 2).

Therefore the emissions intensity fell from 0.542 to 0.445 metric tons per thousand kWh, or by 18 percent.

If the emissions intensity had not changed and emissions had risen at the same rate as generation, they would have reached 456 million metric tons in 2009.

China and India responded to such pressure in 2009 by voluntarily pledging to reduce the emissions intensity of their GDP by respectively 40-45% and 20-25% by 2020.

The Indian pledge of cutting emissions intensity by 20-25% is less than the Chinese figure.

Per Copenhagen Accord, India aims to further reduce emissions intensity of its growing GDP by 20 to 25 percent before 2020, with technology transfer and international cooperation.

Since then, the methodology has been changed to rank companies according to emissions intensity.

The increasing proportion of renewable energy in the state has caused a significant decrease in the emissions intensity of electricity generation in South Australia.