China may miss all of its main climate goals for 2025, a new report showed Thursday, as the world’s largest emitter increased its reliance on carbon-intensive industries to bolster a flagging economy.
China has pledged to bring its emissions of carbon dioxide to a peak by 2030 and to net zero by 2060.
Under the Paris climate agreement, Beijing has also committed to a series of stepping-stone targets, such as ensuring 20 percent of its energy comes from alternatives to fossil fuels and cutting the carbon intensity of its economy by 2025.
But the country’s energy-guzzling rebound from the Covid-19 pandemic means “all of these targets are severely off track after 2023”, according to a report by the Finland-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
Carbon emissions from China’s power industry rose 5.2 percent last year as Beijing burned more coal to sate soaring electricity demand, the report published on the Carbon Brief website said.
Adverse weather conditions added to the problem as a series of droughts pushed hydropower production to its lowest levels in over two decades.
Consequently, Beijing needs to achieve a “record fall” of four to six percent in emissions to reach its stated carbon intensity target — the amount of carbon emissions per unit of economic output — for 2025.
However, China could still hit some of next year’s goals if it continues to build on record renewable energy installations last year, the report added.
China has struggled to sustain its economic rebound since it jettisoned strict pandemic-era health controls at the end of 2022.
The world’s number two economy grew at 5.2 percent last year, one of its slowest rates in decades.
