Opinion | Why cities will be the main battleground in China’s quest for carbon neutrality

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.

Cities can help China achieve these three goals. Green, low-carbon and healthy cities can act as an engine of, rather than a brake on, China’s high-quality development. Chinese cities contribute about 85 per cent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions; 60 per cent of China’s population lives in cities, and that expected to grow to 80 per cent by 2050, an additional 255 million residents.

According to preliminary results of forthcoming work from the Coalition for Urban Transitions, a collection of feasible, low-carbon measures and investments in Chinese cities – such as decarbonisation of electricity, optimisation of cement processing, and vehicle efficiency and electrification – could cut emissions from urban buildings, materials, transport and waste by close to 50 per cent by 2030 and nearly 90 per cent by 2050.