ugc_banner

China aims to cut fossil energy use to below 20 per cent by 2060

WION Web Team
New DelhiUpdated: Oct 24, 2021, 10:56 PM IST
main img
File image: Chinese President Xi Jinping Photograph:(Reuters)

Story highlights

The authorities have also been looking to ramp up production as coal prices surge and supplies run low

China has set an ambitious goal of reducing fossil fuel use to under 20 per cent by 2060, reveals an official plan published by state media on Sunday.

The cabinet document talks about a pledge by President Xi Jinping to wean the world's biggest polluter off coal, with a target of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality 30 years later.

The authorities have also been looking to ramp up production as coal prices surge and supplies run low.

Guidelines published by China's official Xinhua news agency on Sunday laid out a host of targets in its path towards carbon neutrality.

These guidelines included the proportion of non-fossil fuel consumption reaching around 25 per cent of total energy use by 2030. By then, carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP would have dropped by more than 65 per cent from 2005 levels.

The guidelines also highlighted an earlier aim for carbon emissions per unit of GDP to fall 18 per cent in 2025, from 2020 standards.

Authorities have called for a shift in industrial structures, saying that they would "resolutely curb the blind development" of projects with high energy consumption and emissions.

The authorities also stressed the need for effective responses against economic and social risks that could come up with a low-carbon transition, and to "prevent overreaction and ensure safe carbon reduction".

The guidelines come as countries are gearing up for the Cop26 summit in Glasgow.

Meanwhile, the UK president-designate of the Cop26 talks, Alok Sharma, has said that achieving a global climate deal in Glasgow in the next three weeks will be harder than signing the Paris agreement of 2015. 

He further said that the task would be to get nearly 200 countries to implement stringent cuts to their greenhouse gas emissions, keeping in mind the increase in global temperature to within 1.5C of pre-industrial levels.