By Ruby Liu – Tuesday 26 October
Guidance for China to achieve its carbon emissions peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060 was jointly released by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Sunday October 24.
The guidance specifies that by the year 2025, China’s energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product will be reduced by 13.5% from 2020 levels, carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per unit of GDP will be 18% lower than that in 2020, and its share of non-fossil energy consumption will account for about 20% of the country’s total energy consumption.
By 2030, China’s CO2 emission per unit of GDP will drop by more than 65% from 2005 levels and the share of non-fossil energy consumption will increase to around 25%. Additionally, the country’s total installed wind and solar power capacity will reach more than 1.2 billion kilowatts.
By 2060, China aims to have fully established a green, low-carbon and circular economy and a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system. The country will also realize its goal of carbon neutrality, with a share of nonfossil energy consumption of over 80%.
To reach the above targets, the guidance states China will continue to upgrade industrial structures. Particularly, the country will make plans for industries like energy, steel, non-ferrous metals, petrochemicals, building materials, transportation, and construction, to reach carbon peaking.
Meanwhile, the expansion of energy-intensive and high-emission projects in certain industries, such as steel, cement, .at glass, and electrolytic aluminium, will be strictly controlled. In contrast, new energy, new materials, new energy vehicles and high-end equipment manufacturing will be the strategic emerging industries on which China will speed up its development, according to the guidance.
To increase its share of non-fossil energy consumption, China will focus on developing renewable energies, including wind power, solar power, biomass energy, ocean energy and geothermal energy.
With China undertaking renewable energy projects, more clean energy means more demand for metal materials that can make the technology possible, such as copper, lithium, cobalt, silicon, and rare earth materials, according to market sources.
(MetalBulletin, 26 Oct, 2021)
