China’s ‘modest’ climate targets for next five years don’t go far enough, experts say

Beijing sets goal of reducing energy intensity by 13.5 per cent and carbon emissions by 18 per cent from 2020 levels

But environmental experts say they should be more ambitious, with provinces and industries encouraged to reach peak emissions earlier

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China produced more steel, cement and aluminium in 2020 than it did in 2019. Photo: Reuters

Published: 9:00am, 6 Mar 2021Updated: 10:12am, 8 Mar 2021

China has announced five-year targets towards achieving its carbon neutrality and environment protection goals, but critics say they do not go far enough.

In a speech at the opening session of the national legislature on Friday, Premier Li Keqiang pledged to pursue green development and to reduce the country’s energy consumption per unit of GDP, or energy intensity, by 13.5 per cent from the 2020 levels by 2025. Carbon emissions per unit of GDP, or carbon intensity, would be cut by 18 per cent in the same period.

He said Beijing also aimed to eliminate toxic air and urban water pollution in the next five years.

It has set a target of increasing the share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to 20 per cent by 2025, from 15.3 per cent in 2020. Li also said the nuclear power sector would be developed in a “proactive and orderly” manner.

He said energy intensity would be cut by about 3 per cent this year and an action plan would be drawn up to detail how the country could achieve its goal of hitting peak emissions by 2030.

That goal, along with achieving carbon neutrality by 2060, was announced by President Xi Jinping last year, and the targets unveiled on Friday are a step towards meeting those climate commitments – but environmental experts say some of them are not ambitious enough.