China is targeting a 17% cut in carbon intensity under its 15th five-year plan, it announced Thursday, as the country declares its ambition to “lead global climate governance.”
The plan drops long-standing energy intensity targets, reflecting a shift toward measuring climate progress based directly on emissions. Greenpeace said that meant the pace of total emissions reductions will depend mostly on whether renewable energy deployment can keep pace with overall economic growth.
Beijing’s renewables rollout, which now accounts for roughly 11% of China’s GDP, is set to continue through the decade: The latest five-year plan calls for replacing 30 million metric tons of coal with renewables annually and aims to bring coal to peak consumption by 2030, but stops short of stricter caps. Beijing wants non-fossil fuels to reach a quarter of total energy use by the end of the decade, up from 21% last year. The plan reaffirmed China’s conviction to “fully implement” the UN’s climate convention and the Paris Agreement, just as US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Paris accord for a second time, and exited a string of UN climate bodies.
