Experts praise the plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions

The carbon dioxide emission reduction action plan published by the State Council on Wednesday signals a clear action plan and timetable for energy savings, experts said on Thursday.

They stressed that easing the new energy requirement could create around 74 gigawatts of new installations, bringing numerous benefits to key sectors.

The National Development and Reform Commission, China’s top regulator, said that despite significant progress made in improving energy-saving technologies and reducing carbon emissions, China’s green transition for 2021-2025 is delayed due to factors such as the Covid pandemic. -19 pandemic, which makes it essential to achieve binding targets this year and next.

The plan assumes that by the end of this year, energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP should fall by approximately 2.5 percent, respectively. and 3.9 percent

By the end of this year, non-fossil energy is expected to account for approximately 18.9 percent of total energy consumption, with key industries expected to achieve energy savings equivalent to approximately 50 million metric tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 130 million tone .

According to the plan, by 2025 the share of non-fossil energy consumption should increase to approximately 20 percent of the total basket.

“The plan shows China’s strong commitment to the green transition despite the challenges,” said Jin Li, vice president of the Southern University of Science and Technology. “It highlights several key issues that need to be addressed, including optimizing the energy mix, modernizing industries and changing energy consumption patterns. It calls for solutions to problems such as dependence on fossil fuels, low energy efficiency and outdated production methods and technologies in some industries.”

To address these issues, the plan proposes specific solutions, including reducing the use of fossil fuels, increasing the use of non-fossil energy, and implementing energy conservation and emission reduction measures in energy-intensive industries such as steel, petrochemicals, construction and transport. It also calls for improved policies and increased financial support to facilitate China’s green transition.

“This roadmap signals further development opportunities for sectors such as fossil fuel decarbonization, new energy, energy storage, environmental protection, green buildings and electric vehicles,” Jin said.

Lin Boqiang, director of the China Institute of Energy Policy Studies at Xiamen University, shared this opinion. “The growing share of new energy installations has already had a significant impact on the grid due to its variability and instability. Recent favorable policies are actively promoting new energy electricity consumption, which will drive the development of many segments such as energy storage and green energy trading.”

Analysts at China Galaxy Securities say the roadmap’s provision that new energy utilization should be reduced from 95 to 90 percent in resource-rich areas could create about 74 GW of space for new energy installations. They predicted that this demand could potentially increase the scale of solar installations in China in 2024-25.

The plan provides guidance for healthier industrial development by increasing entry requirements for new non-ferrous metals projects. Analysts say low-grade silicon production capacity could be gradually eliminated, giving companies cost and technology advantages in silicon materials and batteries.

Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the China Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said emission reductions require a stable mechanism that will enable industries to improve energy efficiency and also reap the benefits from the process.

Apart from the new energy sector, the use of low-emission technologies in sectors with high energy consumption, such as green buildings, will also create wide development opportunities.

Charlie Zheng, chief economist of Samoyed Cloud Technology Group, said: “Under higher energy efficiency and environmental protection standards, small-scale steel, cement and non-ferrous metal projects can be gradually phased out, which will upgrade industrial equipment production.”

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