China, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases, has released its "15th Five-Year" Carbon Peak Action Plan, detailing emission reduction strategies through 2030 and promoting the integration of a vast renewable energy system into factories, data centers, and transportation systems.
On Thursday (July 9), China announced its Carbon Peak Action Plan for the "15th Five-Year" period (2026 to 2030), proposing that by 2030, China's carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will decrease by 17% compared to 2025, and the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption will reach 25%, ensuring the achievement of the carbon peak target on schedule and laying a solid foundation for achieving the country's Nationally Determined Contributions by 2035 and advancing carbon neutrality.
Bloomberg reports that this five-year climate plan shows China is shifting from simply expanding clean energy installations to focusing more on the consumption and utilization of new energy, including developing energy storage and transmission, promoting electrification and green hydrogen applications, as well as building low-carbon industrial parks and low-carbon data centers.
According to the report, the specifics of this action plan generally follow China’s existing approach, namely setting relatively modest targets and promoting emission reductions through the development of clean technology. This may disappoint those who advocate for accelerated climate action. The core climate targets are the same as what China announced in its overall five-year plan in March.
Carbon dioxide emissions constitute the main part of China’s climate footprint. Driven by the deployment of renewable energy and further development of electric vehicles, China’s carbon dioxide emissions saw a slight decline last year.
China has pledged to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, but Beijing has so far only committed to peaking emissions by 2030, which means emissions could still rebound in the coming years.
In addition, this carbon peak action plan does not attempt to curb China's rapidly growing coal-to-chemicals industry, but instead calls for advancing low-carbon transformation, reducing coal consumption per unit of product, and gradually replacing some fossil-based raw materials and energy inputs with renewable electricity and green hydrogen.
The actions taken over the next five years will be critical in determining whether China can meet the carbon emission deadline set by Xi Jinping. The speed and extent to which China begins to reduce its massive climate footprint will also be vital for the global outlook to limit the impacts of global warming.