According to a study recently released by the Center for Global Development, the Chinese plants are expected to surpass US utilities' emissions in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 2017.

The Center for Global Development emissions survey reviewed the green house gas emissions of 50,000 power plants around the world and at the moment, the United States power plants are the top emitters followed by those of China.

"If we look ahead over the next 10 years China will overwhelmingly dominate the United States," said David Wheeler - the author of the report - for the AFP.

The current numbers of the CO2 emissions coming from the US utilities are about 2.8 billion tones of CO2 per year, while the Chinese power plants are emitting 2.7 billion tones per year, according to the above mentioned study. China’s growing economy will most likely have a boost up effect on the country's CO2 emissions.

When asserting that China’s emissions will surpass those of the US, the think tank that worked on the survey also took in consideration the Chinese power plants that are being constructed or due to be built so they could have a “pretty good fix” on the future emissions.

There are 50,000 power plants world wide.  Their total emissions per year are about 10 billion tones of CO2. With over 8,000 power plants, the U.S. spew about 25 percent of that total, the survey shows. The biggest U.S. emitter is Southern Co., followed by American Electric Power Company Inc., Duke Energy Corp., and AES Corp.

The biggest emitting state in the U.S. is Texas which accounts for 290 million tones of emissions, followed by Florida (157 million tons) and Indiana (137 million tons).

On the other side of the Globe, the largest emitter in China is Huaneng Power International who spews about 292 million tones of CO2 per year.

However, the worst emitters are - according to the survey - the Australians. Per capita, Australia is producing five times as much CO2 from generating power as China. The U.S. are second with eight tones of CO2 per head and that’s 16 times more than that emitted by India, another quickly emerging economy.

According to the researchers, the emissions are high partly due to high living standards, but the energy policies also play a key role in the issue. CGD president Nancy Birdsall said that Europeans, despite having similar living standards with the US, are emitting less than half the power sector CO2 of the average American.