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China Vows Carbon Neutrality by 2060 in Major Climate Pledge

China Pledges Carbon Neutrality by 2060 and Tighter Climate Goal

China aims to be carbon neutral by 2060, tightening its target to cut greenhouse-gases, and signaled higher spending on green technologies in the next five years, major pledge in the fight against climate change by the planet’s worst polluter.

President Xi Jinping, speaking during a virtual United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, also reiterated his goal for emissions to peak before 2030 and urged all nations to work toward a greener economic recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. While he didn’t lay out details, Xi’s announcement implies China’s emissions will have to sharply decline to reach net-zero in less than 30 years after peaking in 2030.

“Humankind can no longer afford to ignore the repeated warnings of nature and go down the beaten path of extracting resources without investing in conservation, pursuing development at the expense of protection, and exploiting resources without restoration,” Xi said in a speech by video link.

The remarks suggest that China, the world’s most populous nation and top energy user, is willing to take on more responsibility for tackling climate change. It marks a contrast with U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement, which called for limits on fossil-fuel emissions everywhere.

China Vows Carbon Neutrality by 2060 in Major Climate Pledge

Xi didn’t give any further details of what carbon neutrality means or set out further information about how China’s pledges under the Paris accord will evolve. His announcement is evidence that the leadership’s next five-year plan will seek to accelerate the spread of clean energy.

The plan for 2021-2025, due to be published in March, will seek to balance economic growth that has been fueled by coal with the need to rein in pollutants damaging the atmosphere. The government has been trying to limit the use of the dirtiest fossil fuel in recent years while scaling up renewable energy production. As a result, it’s currently on track to meet its pledge for power sector emissions to peak by 2030, according to BloombergNEF.

“Although details are scarce at the moment, this looks like a very significant step forward,” said Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit. “China isn’t just the world’s biggest emitter but the biggest energy financier and biggest market.”

Reaching net-zero carbon emissions would require enormous investments. By one estimate, published this week by analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., the nation would need to spend $5.5 trillion, or about $180 billion annually, to reach that goal by 2050. It would require drastically cutting the use of fossil fuels and scaling up frontier technologies to offset its remaining emissions, including carbon capture.

European officials were expected to press China to toughen its climate goals at a high-level meeting last week, according to two officials who spoke to reporters last week on the condition of anonymity. The European Union wanted Chinese greenhouse-gas emissions to peak by 2025 instead of the country’s target date of 2030.

The bloc also wanted China to stop building coal-fired power plants at home and financing them abroad, the people said.

“Six years ago, the secret U.S.-China climate deal caught the world by a nice surprise,” said Li Shuo, senior climate policy officer at Greenpeace East Asia. “Xi Jinping’s climate pledge is a bold diplomatic move that demonstrates clear political will and the maximum desire to contrast China’s climate stance with the U.S.”

Xi called on “all countries to pursue innovative, coordinated, green and open development for all, seize the historic opportunities presented by the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, achieve a green recovery of the world economy in the post-Covid era and thus create a powerful force driving sustainable development.”

©2020 Bloomberg L.P.