Amid rising protectionism worldwide, the Chinese government has vowed to accelerate China’s green transformation while also calling for greater global collaboration as it published a list of green targets. “We must adhere to a safe transformation at work,” said the guidance for “accelerating a comprehensive green transition in all economic and social sectors”. The document stressed the need to “properly prevent and resolve internal and external risks and challenges faced by the green transformation; effectively ensure food and energy security; and protect industrial supply-chain security”. The main objectives aim to achieve “remarkable results” in the green evolution by 2030, and to basically establish a green, low-carbon and circular development economic system by 2035.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said the guidelines were being promulgated as China has made historical achievements in green and low-carbon development, which includes the world’s biggest and most complete new-energy industrial chain, and also because the green transformation has faced challenges and “setbacks”. “Environmental and climate issues are increasingly politicized, and green trade barriers are escalating,” an NDRC official warned. In 2023, China made more than 80% of solar panels in the world, along with 75% and 60% of the world’s lithium batteries and electric vehicles, respectively. That dominance has sparked wariness and tariff actions from the United States and the European Union, which have accused China of strangling their own manufacturing sectors via overcapacity in its new-energy industries. Chinese officials have been refuting Western claims of overcapacity in recent months. They contend that cheaper and better green products from China are helping to alleviate inflation and accelerate the green transformation worldwide.
Compared with the old targets in China’s green transformation, the new guidelines particularly highlight the “guiding role of industry and consumers”, said a note from Huatai Securities. For the first time, the document proposed that the scale of the energy-conservation and environmental-protection industry will reach about CNY15 trillion by 2030. It also set a target for the annual utilization of bulk solid waste, which will reach about 4.5 billion tons by 2030. It unveiled detailed plans for promoting green consumption, including expanding the scope and scale of green products in government procurements, and encouraging green consumption among consumers through measures such as issuing consumption coupons. The guidelines also reaffirmed existing goals such as raising the share of non-fossil consumption to 25% by 2030, and gradually reducing coal consumption in the next five years.
Despite an aggressive push to install wind and solar farms in recent years, the substitution rate for new energy in the overall power supply has been slow, with the unpredictable nature of these sources leading to consumption bottlenecks. Thermal power remains the backbone of China’s electricity grid. In 2023, the share of thermal power was 69.9%, down by only 1.3 percentage points compared with 2020, according to a Fitch Ratings report earlier this year. The shares of wind and solar power were 9.1% and 3.3% last year, respectively, 3.5 and 1.4 percentage points higher than in 2020, the South China Morning Post reports.
The Global Times adds that in the first half of 2024, China's new-energy vehicle (NEV) penetration rate reached 35.2%, ranking first among the world's major economies. Chinese analysts said that the achievements in the clean energy sector came after decades of effort to plan, build and invest in China's new-energy industries, amid the government's steadfast steering toward a green transformation of its economy and the active participation of Chinese companies of various ownership . Clean energy contributed a record CNY11.4 trillion to China's economy in 2023, up 30% year-on-year, while clean-energy investment rose 40% year-on-year to CNY6.3 trillion, according to the Helsinki-based Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air. In the first seven months of this year, NEV exports surged 17.8% year-on-year, according to the China Passenger Car Association (CPCA).
China's second National Ecology Day on August 15 was held under the theme “Accelerating Green Transition in all Areas of Economic and Social Development”. Ecological civilization is a concept promoted by President Xi Jinping for balanced and sustainable development that features harmonious coexistence between mankind and nature. When addressing the National Conference on Ecological and Environmental Protection in July last year, Xi emphasized that China should accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation of its development, maintain green and low-carbon development as the fundamental solution to ecological and environmental issues, accelerate the formation of green production modes and lifestyles, and lay a green foundation for high-quality development.
This overview is based on reports by the China Daily, the Global Times and the South China Morning Post.
