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Chinese President Xi Jinping promised on Tuesday that his country would adopt much stricter climate targets and achieve what he called “carbon neutrality by 2060.” If they are fulfilled, the commitments will be crucial in the global fight against climate change.
The announcement, made at the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, is significant because China is currently the top producer of greenhouse gas emissions. What the country does to curb its emissions, therefore, is crucial to curb global warming in general.
Todd Stern, the top US negotiator in the 2015 Paris Agreement talks, called the carbon neutrality target “big and important news.”
“The closer to 2050, the better,” Stern said.
The timing of the announcement was equally remarkable, getting so close to the US elections in which climate change has become increasingly important to voters.
President Trump pulled the United States out of an international agreement aimed at curbing climate change. His challenger, Joseph R. Biden Jr., has pledged to join the deal and vowed to spend $ 2 trillion to reduce emissions and address the effects of climate change.
“It shows Xi’s constant interest in tapping the climate agenda for geopolitical purposes,” said Li Shuo, China analyst at Greenpeace.
In his speech, Xi called on countries to “achieve an ecological recovery of the world economy in the post-Covid era.”
“Humanity can no longer afford to ignore nature’s repeated warnings and follow the well-trodden path of extracting resources without investing in conservation, pursuing development at the expense of protection, and exploiting resources without restoration,” Xi said.
It was not only a strong counterpoint to the expansive rollbacks of the Trump administration’s environmental protections, but also a way to deflect criticism of China’s own handling of the coronavirus epidemic.
“The contrast between Xi’s speech and Trump’s is stark,” said Joanna Lewis, a Georgetown University professor who follows China’s climate policies. “While Trump’s speech blames China for the world’s problems, Xi’s speech calls for a global response and highlights China’s contributions.”
But his comments were less precise about how and how quickly China would step up its climate policies.
First, while Mr Xi said China would peak its greenhouse gas emissions “before 2030,” he did not specify when. In the past, China had said that its peak emissions would occur “around” 2030, after which its total emissions would begin to decline. China is on track to reach peak emissions in the next decade.
Second, in saying that China would aim to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, Xi vaguely left when that key threshold would be reached. There is a scientific consensus that the world must achieve carbon neutrality, sometimes called net zero emissions, by 2050 to have a reasonable chance of avoiding the worst climate hazards.
“Therefore, this announcement gives China time,” said Dr. Lewis, “as the results of the US presidential elections are certainly a factor that China is considering in finalizing its climate plan.”
China is the world’s largest consumer of coal, despite dominating clean energy technology and producing more solar panels and wind turbines than any other country in the world. It is also the world’s largest manufacturer of electric cars and buses. Yes, and how, China’s transition from fossil fuels to renewables could become clearer when it issues its next five-year economic plan, which will guide the country’s economic trajectory from 2021 to 2025.
Climate change may affect China’s food and water supplies, while rising sea levels threaten densely populated industrial cities along the country’s coastline. Average temperatures have risen faster in China than the world average between 1951 and 2017.
