Opinion | The high stakes and pitfalls of China’s drive for carbon leadership

Name: China vows carbon neutrality by 2060 during one-day UN biodiversity summit
Uploaded: 2020-10-30T19:30:21.000Z
Duration: 3 min 5 s
Description: China vows carbon neutrality by 2060 during one-day UN biodiversity summit

China’s ambitious carbon pledge may be the world’s last best hope and has great potential for renewed US cooperation

But it also risks justifying greater authoritarianism at home, more controversial dams and exports of carbon liabilities to belt and road countries

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A man cleans a canal in Shanghai on September 24. China’s carbon pledge is part of its goal to achieve an “ecological civilisation”. Photo: EPA-EFE

Yifei LiandJudith Shapiro

Published: 3:30am, 31 Oct 2020Updated: 6:40am, 31 Oct 2020

President Xi Jinping has pledged to speed up China’s decarbonisation trajectory to reach peak emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. This is no small commitment. The world’s second-largest economy accounts for more than a quarter of the planet’s carbon emissions.

The Middle Kingdom is eager to assume environmental leadership when the US-led world order is on shaky ground. Carbon neutrality is a bold and commendable goal.

The carbon neutrality pledge must be understood within the broader context of China’s strategic goal of achieving an “ecological civilisation”. While it is tempting to dismiss the formula as propaganda, it has significant ideological underpinnings.

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China vows carbon neutrality by 2060 during one-day UN biodiversity summit

Ecological civilisation marks a new frontier for Chinese Marxism. The concept is an attempt to extend Karl Marx’s “stages of development” theory, which stipulates the evolution of societies from feudalism to capitalism, towards socialism, and eventually communism.

Chinese state-sponsored intellectuals have sought to refine the classic Marxist formulation by adding ecological civilisation as a transitional phase after socialism, which China has supposedly achieved.

China therefore sees ecological civilisation as a unique theoretical contribution to Marxism – as such, it represents the party-state’s official intellectual linchpin.

Ecological civilisation is China’s unique approach to achieving renewed civilisational leadership. The Chinese state seeks to “rejuvenate” its ancient civilisation, overcoming its “century of humiliation” when China was subjugated by foreign powers.

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