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Opinion
Why cities will be the main battleground in China’s quest for carbon neutrality
- Green, low-carbon and healthy cities, expected to house 80 per cent of China’s population by 2050, can act as an engine of, rather than a brake on, the country’s high-quality development
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Dr Li Fang is chief representative in the Beijing Representative Office of the World Resources Institute China.
At the recent World Economic Forum virtual meeting, Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated the importance of scaling up efforts to address climate change. As the world’s second-largest economy and the first country to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic, China has set a good example and demonstrated its responsibility.
In less than three months, China announced several important commitments – it will aim for carbon emissions to peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. It will cut carbon intensity by more than 65 per cent from 2005 levels and increase the share of non-fossil fuels in the primary energy consumption mix to around 25 per cent.
As China’s 14th five-year plan and its long-range objectives up to 2035 will be launched in 2021, and the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, another important milestone in the global response, will be held in 2021, this is a significant year for action on climate change, building an ecological civilisation and promoting high-quality growth.
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