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BEIJING: China will invest more in coal to boost its economy over the next five years, according to a government plan released on Friday (March 5) that only modestly raised renewable ambitions.
Environmentalists hoped that China’s five-year national development plan, unveiled at its annual parliamentary session, would provide a roadmap for its 2060 carbon neutral goal.
However, the plan, announced by Prime Minister Li Keqiang, had few details and signaled little urgency in reducing greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.
The lack of a cap on total energy consumption was one of the notable exclusions.
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“Without the goal of controlling energy consumption, there is less in this five-year plan to limit the growth of emissions than in the previous ones,” Lauri Myllyvirta, from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, told AFP.
“As a result, there is no guarantee that emissions growth will slow, let alone stop, by 2025.”
Instead, the plan aims to reduce the amount of carbon emitted per unit of GDP by 18 percent.
However, this is the same target as for the previous five years, and economic growth was set at 6 percent in 2021, which means a net increase in carbon emissions for this year.
The plan sets a goal of generating just 20% of energy from non-fossil fuels by 2025, up from 15.9% in 2020.
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There were no specific targets to increase wind, solar or hydroelectric capacity, although there have been commitments to invest more in renewable energy.
China is the world’s biggest polluter, spewing more than a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions related to global warming.
As part of the plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, Beijing had previously committed to reaching maximum carbon emissions by 2030.
The researchers say this requires that coal power be shut off almost immediately.
However, the economic plan does not prohibit the development of new coal-fired power plants.
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Instead, China’s cabinet last month issued a directive to “increase the proportion of large-capacity coal power units.”
“The contradiction between targeting low-carbon development and continuing to invest in coal and fossil fuels still seems stark in China’s plans,” Myllyvirta said.
The country’s strong post-pandemic recovery has been fueled by heavy investment in infrastructure, and environmentalists are concerned that this could slow the shift to greener policies.
Despite trade blocks to slow the spread of the virus, China’s carbon emissions for 2020 were 1.5 percent higher than 2019, according to data released by the statistics office last week.
