China is now experiencing rapid development and has become the second largest energy consumer and carbon dioxide emitter. China has presented the objectives of building a well off society in an all round way at the 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2002. Without question, the future society, with higher level of modernization and standard of living, will consume more energy. This paper predicts the energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions of a scenario in the all inclusive well off society in 2020. Forecasting results indicate that China will consume 3177 Mtce energy, accounting for 14.4% of the world's total consumption, and emit 6072 Mt CO2, accounting for 16.8% of world's total emissions in 2020. Aiming at this situation, some comments and proposals are stated from the point of view of technology. (C) 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.