Popular Stories

China submits new ‘disappointing’ emissions pledge to UN

October 28, 2021
Henry

The submission is a disappointment to leaders who are pressuring the country to significantly jumpstart their pledges and speed up plans to decarbonize its economy.

Nick Mabe, CEO of E3G, a European climate think tank, said China’s new plan was “disappointing and a missed opportunity”.

“Despite sharp reductions in clean technology costs and deteriorating climate impacts globally, China has not explicitly committed to reducing emissions in the 2020s in these new targets,” Mabe said in a statement.

In the new plan – known as the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) – China said it aims to peak CO2 emissions before 2030 and reach net zero by 2060, a pledge that the President said. Xi Jinping had previously declared, and said that this would reduce it. CO2 emissions per unit of gross domestic product (GDP) are up by more than 65% from 2005 levels by 2030. China’s emissions plans are set in terms of “carbon intensity” which allows for more emissions as the country’s GDP grows.

Carbon neutrality, or net zero emissions, is achieved when as much greenhouse gas is removed from the atmosphere as is emitted, so the net amount added is zero.

Earlier, China had pledged that renewable energy would create 25% of its installed power capacity and wind and solar 16.5% of its energy by 2025, details that were also included in its submission.

China unveils plan to reduce fossil fuels but fails to announce new emissions target
China had already announced that it would reduce its dependence on fossil fuels below 20% by 2060. As of now, coal is China’s main energy source and is widely used for heating, electricity generation and steel making. Last year, it accounted for about 60% of the country’s energy use.

The plan, formally submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, is a slight improvement over China’s previous one, which set the country’s CO2 emissions down to “around 2030” and CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by 60%. % was expected to be reduced. 65% from 2005 levels.

Helen Mountford, vice president of the World Resources Institute for Climate and Economics, said China was a powerful player in closing the 25% gap between current climate commitments and the emissions reductions needed to keep temperatures from rising beyond 1.5 degrees Celsius. .

“If the world is going to have any chance of being hit by the climate crisis, China – as well as all other major emitters – need to take small steps to big leaps towards a cleaner and safer future,” he said. said. said.

But despite the promises being seen as inadequate, questions have arisen in recent months about whether China can actually deliver on them. China was Powering your coronavirus economic recovery By building dozens of new coal plants and accelerating construction projects relying on fossil fuels, and it has recently accelerated coal production to ease the ongoing energy crisis.

CNN’s Helen Regan contributed to this story.

.