Climate change: China’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2060 will cost US$15 trillion, report says

Boston Consulting Group’s ‘Climate Plan for China’ says Beijing will have to go above and beyond demands of the Paris Agreement to hit its target

Making Xi Jinping’s pledge a reality will require new technologies and cost about 2 per cent of the nation’s cumulative GDP for 2020-50, it says

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China will have to embrace major technological changes and spend up to US$15 trillion to achieve carbon neutrality, a new report says. Photo: AP

Published: 7:31pm, 21 Oct 2020Updated: 5:45pm, 9 Dec 2020

China will have to invest up to 100 trillion yuan (US$15 trillion) over the next three decades and instigate sweeping technological changes to its energy structure change if it is to achieve its target of being carbon neutral by 2060, according to an industry report.

Chinese President Xi Jinping announced the goal last month at the United Nations General Assembly, saying the country would reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and be carbon neutral 30 years later.

In its “Climate Plan for China” report published on Wednesday, Boston Consulting Group said the carbon neutrality goal was “closely aligned” to the target set by the Paris Agreement but would require Beijing to go even further.

The country, which is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, had to “take immediate actions” to achieve a 78-85 per cent carbon reduction by 2050, it said.

The Paris deal sets out a global framework to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees.

The report estimated that China would need to invest between 90 trillion and 100 trillion yuan on climate measures over the next three decades, or about 2 per cent of its cumulative gross domestic product for the 2020-50 period.

The investment in renewable energy, construction, transport and waste treatment would boost employment by 0.3 per cent by 2030, it said.