China committed to carbon goals despite global volatility

BEIJING -- China will stay committed to achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality amid recent setbacks in global carbon reduction efforts as some countries fell back on coal plants to tide over an energy crunch, an official said Thursday.

"Low-carbon transformation is no walk in the park," Liu Dechun, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, told a media conference. China will integrate carbon goals into the big picture of environmental protection and economic and social development, he said.

The country will further pursue the green and low-carbon transformation of its energy sources, upgrade its industries to enhance energy efficiency, and spur green technology innovations, he said.

Thursday marks the two-year anniversary of China's pledge to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and to realize carbon neutrality by 2060. This cause had made a good start, said Liu.

China launched a national carbon market in July 2021, and had seen a cumulative turnover of 195 million tonnes of carbon emission quotas worth nearly 8.6 billion yuan (about $1.2 billion) by Sept 14.

Notable low-carbon headway can also be seen in sectors such as construction and transportation. China had completed over 2 billion square meters of green buildings in urban areas by 2021 and has led the world in terms of the output and sales of new energy vehicles for seven years in a row.

The country has advanced clean and efficient consumption of coal and recorded a world-topping 1.1 billion kilowatts in installed capacity of renewable energy sources, said Liu.

Its energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product keeps falling, while the forest coverage ratio is ever-increasing to absorb more carbon emissions.

China has sought to promote an equitable and win-win mechanism for global climate governance and has supported developing countries' low-carbon efforts, according to Liu.