This is how China’s top polluters intend to be greener by 2025

Photographer: Qilai Shen / Bloomberg

China’s journey to carbon neutrality took its first major step on Friday, as the country announced targets for slowing emissions over the next five years.

The country plans to reduce carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 18% by 2025 and energy consumption per unit of GDP by 13.5%, Prime Minister Li Keqiang said on Friday at the opening of the National People’s Congress. It also intends to increase non-fossil fuels to 20% of energy consumption by then and will create an action plan this year to detail how it aims to reach peak emissions by 2030.

Growing regenerable

China is raising its share of energy from carbon-free sources

Source: National Bureau of Statistics

At the same time, China intends to further increase domestic production of fossil fuels such as coal and oil to improve energy security, a key concern for the world’s largest importer of raw materials. And it intends to continue developing nuclear energy after failing to meet the sector’s targets in the last five years.

Li’s speech and the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan, which covers 2021 to 2025, is Beijing’s first strategic plan since September, when Xi Jinping set a zero net emissions target by 2060.

Read about China setting a conservative growth target here.

Here’s how some key energy and climate sectors could impact:

Energetic efficiency

China began to industrialize its economy more than a century after countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, so its energy consumption continues to grow as others have reached or reached levels. Beijing did not want to slow growth by limiting energy consumption, so instead focused on using it more efficiently.

Greenhouse gas emptying

China accounted for more than 30% of global carbon emissions last year

Source: Robbie Andrew and Global Carbon Project

The new target of reducing energy consumption per unit of GDP by 13.5% is slightly lower than the 15% target set by the country in its last 5-year plan. China has exceeded this target, reducing energy intensity by about 18% between 2016 and 2020. State Grid Corp. from China, the nation’s utility giant, earlier this week he pointed to a stronger focus on energy efficiency and demand reforms over the next five years, saying it was a cheaper solution than adding a new energy source.

Carbon emissions

Like energy use, China’s approach to emissions has been to reduce intensity rather than set a general goal. The 18% reduction target over the next five years is the same level it targeted and successfully achieved in the last plan.

Loss of intensity

China wants to continue to emit less carbon per unit of GDP it produces

Source: International Energy Agency

However, as GDP continues to grow, emissions have also increased, and China dumped 9.8 billion tons of carbon in 2019, nearly 29 percent of the world’s total, according to BP Plc. Climate experts say China needs to set an absolute cap, with the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air saying it needs to be 8.75 billion tonnes by 2025 to meet the linear path to the 2060 carbon neutrality target.

Coal

Coal is the most polluting fossil fuel, and China exploits and burns half of the world’s supply. In recent years, Beijing has managed to reduce the share of coal in its energy mix, but this has happened with the increase in total energy consumption, which means that the amount of coal burned has not changed much since the early 2010s.

Reducing coal dependence

China has exceeded its goal of reducing the share of coal in its energy mix

Source: National Bureau of Statistics

This trend is likely to continue in the next five-year plan. Li said China will continue to promote the clean and efficient use of fuel, while making a major boost in the development of new energy sources. And the country will continue to build production systems for coal, oil and gas. The country’s coal industry group said earlier this week that it intends to increase production by 2025 and that total consumption will be easy. higher at the end of the period than it was in 2020.

Green energy

China’s target of 20% of the energy needed to reach non-fossil fuel sources by 2025 is faster than the previous goal of reaching that mark by 2030 and illustrates the country’s enormous success. solar and wind capacity installations in recent years. The country will continue to “efficiently” develop these sources and promote hydrogen, pumped hydropower and energy storage over the next five years.

Roar from renewable sources

China’s solar and wind capacity is expected to increase in the coming years

Source: BloombergNEF forecasts

Li also reiterated China’s support for nuclear energy, after dropping sharply on its last 5-year plan to have 58 gigawatts of power plants by 2020, reaching just under 50 in return. years, the country intends to increase the energy-sharing capacity of atoms by 40% to 70 gigawatts.

Electrification