Keeping to the Path of Green Development

At the General Debate of the 75th Session of the United Nations General Assembly convened on September 22, 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping promised to the world, “China will scale up its Intended Nationally Determined Contributions by adopting more vigorous policies and measures. We aim to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. ”

- HE JIANKUN

China has always regarded the promotion of green and low-carbon circular development as an important strategic measure for the construction of ecological civilization and the promotion of high-quality and sustainable development. Over the past 10 years, China has adopted a series of measures to adjust its industrial structure, optimize energy mix, improve energy utilization efficiency, and increase forest carbon sinks to accelerate the transition to green and low-carbon development across all spheres of society.

China’s commitment of carbon neutrality before 2060 has gone far beyond the 2065-2070 global carbon neutrality schedule under the Paris Agreement, which aims to keep the global temperature rise this century well below 2°C above preindustrial levels. China’s determination and action are likely to move up the deadline for world carbon neutrality by five to 10 years.

China is the world’s largest developing country and a major carbon emitter. It is a daunting challenge for it to complete the transition from peaking to net-zero emissions within the next 40 years. But as a responsible major country, China will stick to the path of green and low-carbon development, support multilateralism, promote global climate governance, and build a community with a shared future for humankind.

The Road to Low-Carbon Transformation

CHINA made the commitment to reduce its CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by 40-45 percent by 2020 as compared with 2005 at the UN Climate Change Conference 2009 in Copenhagen, and simultaneously increase the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption to 15 percent of its total energy mix. That commitment was honored ahead of schedule. By 2019, China’s CO2 emissions per unit of GDP had dropped by 48 percent, and its non-fossil energy consumption ratio had risen to 15.3 percent.