(Beijing) China is planning a major shift in how it sets its climate targets, adopting future targets for reducing its CO2 emissions.2 in volume and not relative to economic growth, the authorities announced on Friday.
The Asian giant, with its huge population (1.4 billion inhabitants) and its status as a manufacturing country with numerous factories, is the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, responsible for climate change.
Until now, the country has set itself climate targets based on the carbon intensity of its growth, i.e. greenhouse gas emissions relative to the wealth produced.
“Once carbon emissions peak” – which China aims to do by 2030 – “a dual carbon emission control system will be implemented, with total volume control as the main objective,” China’s powerful economic planning agency (NDRC) said.
“China is now gradually decoupling its emissions reductions from its economic growth,” said Yao Zhe, an analyst at Greenpeace China.
According to her, “this new approach will help align China’s action at the national level with its international commitments.”
As China has pledged to peak emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, the country is expected to use the new methodology for its next climate goals, experts say.
As part of the Paris Climate Agreement, these are formalized in a document called the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC).
Countries are expected to submit their enhanced targets by 2035 ahead of the UN deadline of February 10, 2025.
“The (Chinese) NDC will contain an absolute target for reducing emissions by 2035,” Li Shuo, a climate expert at the Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI), a think tank, told AFP.
“This will be the first time that we have an absolute target for reducing emissions from China,” Li Shuo said.
To achieve these objectives, the Asian giant is thus significantly developing its capacities in renewables, to the detriment of coal.
If they continue to grow at record levels, China’s emissions could have already peaked in 2023, experts say.