Almost half a year after Chinese President Xi Jinping's pledge to
make the country carbon-neutral before 2060, the roadmap to achieve the
goal is getting clearer under Xi's push as authorities and industries
scale up their green efforts.
China aims to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon
neutrality before 2060, Xi announced at the general debate of the 75th
session of the United Nations General Assembly via video in September
last year.
Since then, vigorous policies have been rolled out on top of the
already hefty input in green development. At a meeting of the Central
Committee for Financial and Economic Affairs on Monday, Xi called for
incorporating the peaking of carbon emissions and carbon neutrality into
the overall layout of building an ecological civilization.
"Peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality is a tough
battle, it is also a major test of the party's capabilities in governing
the country," the meeting stressed.
While China's economic rise over the past decades was largely powered
by coal, the country, now among the world's biggest investors in green
energy, is increasing pace to shift to other renewables including wind
and solar.
Starting in February, China implemented a set of interim rules for the
management of carbon-emissions trading designed to drive down the
emissions of big power users.
Under the scheme, firms that exceed the emission caps can buy emission quotas from others with a lower carbon footprint.
A total of 2,225 power firms are included in the project. More fields,
such as the steel and aluminum production sectors, will be included in
future carbon trading.
The campaign for green energy also enabled the public to embrace a more
eco-friendly lifestyle, as was shown by the country's booming sales of
new energy vehicles.
On the back of the united efforts, the share of clean energy
consumption in the country has risen from 19.1 percent in 2016 to 24.3
percent in 2020, data by the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
While addressing the Climate Ambition Summit via video link in December
last year, Xi announced that by 2030, China aims to lower its carbon
dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by over 65 percent from the 2005 level
and increase the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy
consumption to around 25 percent.
To move toward the goal, energy consumption per unit of GDP and carbon
dioxide emissions per unit of GDP in 2021 will be reduced by 13.5
percent and 18 percent, respectively, according to this year's
government work report, which also promised to draw up an action plan
for peaking carbon emissions before 2030.
While expanding the use of green energy, bringing down carbon emissions
to net zero, which means achieving a balance between emitting carbon
and absorbing carbon, will require the development of new technologies
to capture and store emissions.
Monday's meeting also called for efforts to push forward major
breakthroughs in green and low-carbon technologies and accelerate the
promotion and application of such technologies for reducing pollution
and carbon emissions.
It has underscored improvements in policies on fiscal taxation, prices,
finance, land and government procurement that are conducive to green
and low-carbon development.
"To peak carbon emissions and achieve carbon neutrality is an extensive
and profound systemic reform for the economy and society," Xi noted at
Monday's meeting.
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