Low-carbon ambition wins wide applause

Key plenum elevates China's commitment to reducing emissions to a new level, expert says

China's ambitions of achieving low-carbon development as mentioned by the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China have won applause from international climate and clean energy experts.

Belinda Schaepe, China policy analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, which is based in Helsinki, Finland, said the third plenum has sent out a powerful message on climate and energy, underscoring China's commitment to green and low-carbon development.

China will make concerted efforts to cut carbon emissions, reduce pollution, pursue green development, and actively respond to climate change, said the communique of the third plenum.

"This elevates China's commitment to reducing emissions and tackling climate change to a new level and could pave the way for ambitious targets in China's upcoming Nationally Determined Contribution to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change," she said, referring to China's efforts to reduce national emissions as a key part of the Paris Agreement. The contributions are commitments that countries make to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions as part of climate change mitigation.

Schaepe said the third plenum confirms the recent policy transition from focus on energy intensity to carbon reduction.

"This is a positive direction and indicates that China is moving closer to post-peak carbon reduction," she said.

She said the main focus of the plenum was new quality productive forces as a guiding force of China's economic growth going forward with particular emphasis on new energy industries.

She said the government aims to implement fiscal, tax, financial, investment and pricing policies and standards to support low-carbon development.

"This continued industrial policy support will further strengthen China's clean energy sector and potentially accelerate the domestic transition," she said.

She noted that the Chinese government has proposed to improve measures for green government procurement and refining a green taxation system.

"If implemented well, these policies could be transformative for high-emission sectors such as steel to accelerate heavy industry decarbonization," she said, adding that the steel sector may have reached a turning point with no new permits given for coal-based steel plants in the first half of 2024, indicating progress on the path to decarbonization.

She also applauded China's ambitions to improve the carbon accounting system and certification systems.

"The anticipated expansion of the national carbon market to include the aluminum, cement and steel sectors provides opportunities for faster emission reductions in these sectors," she said.

Paul Dorfman, a visiting fellow of Science Policy Research Unit of Sussex Energy Group, University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, praised China's achievements in the renewable sector.

"It is now clear that renewables will do the heavy lifting for the net-zero energy. This is good news for China, as it cements its position as the global leader in renewables development — with twice as much solar and wind power capacity under construction as the rest of the world combined," he said.

Dorfman said China installed more solar power units in the past year than it had in the previous three years combined.

With 180 gigawatts of utility-scale solar and 159 GW of wind power already under construction, China has installed more than 100 GW of solar power capacity in just the first half of 2024.

He said if their collective planned utility-scale solar and wind projects come online, China could easily reach 1,200 GW of installed wind and solar capacity by the beginning of 2025 — driven by improved system integration, lower curtailment rates, and enhanced solar and wind competitiveness.