A recent report by the Finland-based independent Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air shows a growing number of climate experts believe China's carbon emissions have either already peaked, or will peak in 2025. But the report also says the country is not on track to meet its CO2 goals in line with the Paris Agreement. TaiwanPlus spoke to Qi Qin, one of the authors of the report, to find out more about China's green energy transition.
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00:00Your research is showing growing optimism that China's CO2 emissions have already peaked or
00:05they'll peak next year in 2025. Now that's good news but you've also found that the country is
00:14not on track to reach its CO2 targets in line with the Paris Agreement. Can you just explain
00:20this? How is this possible? Even though that the carbon emissions is peaking in China or close to
00:27in China that coal consumption is still the major energy source in the country and right now coal
00:34makes up more than half of the country's total energy consumption and since the COVID pandemic
00:40its growth has sped up significantly. If you look at the chart you will see that to meet Paris
00:45Agreement targets China's coal consumption would need to have started declining from 2020 in all
00:52major scenarios but what's actually happened is that coal consumption surged in 2021 and again in
00:582023 well above the average growth rates that we saw before the pandemic let alone declining. Thanks
01:05to the rapid clean energy development most of China's energy demand growth this year is expected
01:12to be met by non-fossil fuel sources that's why we won't see a big emission increase this year.
01:20China's invested more in renewable energy sources than any other country in the world.
01:25What does it need to do to speed up its energy transition? Yes as you mentioned that China has
01:31made incredible strides in in renewable energy with record-breaking investments and installations
01:37in solar and wind power but at the same time however the country's energy consumption is also
01:44accelerating and China is deploying renewables as well as fossil fuels at the same time so this
01:51makes it more of an energy addition rather than a true energy transition. To speed up the transition
01:58I think China needs to take some bold actions this means first need to control the energy
02:03consumption growth in order to shift the economy to a more energy efficient pathways and also to
02:10loosen its reliance on the long-term co-contracts. It also needs to make the grid more flexible
02:15so that renewables can play a bigger role and I think just as importantly that setting clear and
02:21achievable targets for cutting co-consumption and fuel emissions would also provide a strong signal
02:27and a clear roadmap for the change. At the COP29 summit we've just seen developed countries pledge
02:33300 billion US dollars in climate financing. Despite China being the world's largest emitter
02:40of greenhouse gases it's not one of those contributing countries. What is China doing
02:45to support global efforts to tackle the climate crisis? In the recent COP29 there's been a lot of
02:53discussion about how much China should contribute financially but I believe that the most important
03:00thing China can do that is to tackle the global climate crisis is to focus on reducing its own
03:06emissions. You know China is the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter and also it is the main
03:11driver of the emission growth over the past 20 years so what China does in the next few decades
03:18will be absolutely critical in the global fighting against climate change. That's why it's so
03:24important for China to take the next step with more ambitious emission reduction targets.