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China’s National People’s Congress meetings, which ended in March, were shrouded in both a real and figurative haze about how strong its climate ambitions really are and how quickly the country can wean itself from its main source of energy coal.
During the Congress, air pollution returned to Beijing with a vengeance, hitting the highest levels since January 2019, as the economy hummed out of the pandemic. Steel, cement and heavy manufacturing, predominantly backed by coal power, boosted China’s carbon dioxide emissions 4 percent in the second half of 2020 compared to the same pre-pandemic period the year before. At the same time, the goals in the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan on energy intensity, carbon intensity and renewables were hazy as well, little more than vague commitments to tackle carbon dioxide emissions.
File photo of coal being shipped by barge in China. Image courtesy of Rob Loftis under Creative Commons License.
Editor’s note: This story was originally published by Yale E360.
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China’s National People’s Congress meetings, which ended earlier last month, were shrouded in both a real and figurative haze about how strong its climate ambitions really are, and how quickly the country can wean itself from its main source of energy: coal.
During the Congress, air pollution returned to Beijing with a vengeance, hitting the highest levels since January 2019, as the economy hummed out of the pandemic. Steel, cement, and heavy manufacturing, predominantly backed by coal power, boosted China’s carbon dioxide emissions 4 percent in the second half of 2020 compared to the same pre-pandemic period the year before. At the same time, the goals in the country’s 14th Five-Year Plan on energy intensity, carbon intensity, and renewables
1 2021-03-02 08:44:16China Daily
Editor : Mo Hong e
ECNS App Download An aerial view of a wind farm in Liuzhou, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. (Photo by Tan Kaixing/For China Daily)
In one of its latest efforts to forge ahead with carbon neutrality, China is expected to see trading of carbon emission allowances launched online in no more than three months, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. The country has reached the final key stage in the construction of its national carbon trading market, Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu was quoted as saying in a news release on Sunday.
Xie Zhenhua is returning to his climate diplomacy, a job and passion to which he was dedicated for over a decade, bringing hope that Beijing and Washington will break the ice on climate cooperation amid the rift in their relations, experts said.