China praised for efforts on decarbonization path

China's pursuit of policies to help the country meet its climate-action commitments is inspiring confidence among experts.

Daniel Wetzel, the head of the tracking sustainable transitions unit at the International Energy Agency, said the indications of rapid progress on China's decarbonization pathway are evident. He said the swift expansion in industrial policy will aid this process, particularly in the power sector.

"On wind and solar, China installs more than anyone else every year and the country will easily surpass its installation targets by 2030," he said at the launch of a report on China's energy transition during the United Nations Climate Change Conference, or COP27, in Egypt on Wednesday.

According to the "China Energy Transformation Outlook 2023: Special Report for COP27", wind and solar photovoltaic, or PV, power generation accounted for 7.8 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively, of total power generation last year.

The report said the installed capacity of wind and solar PV power generation both exceeded 300 gigawatts, and wind power's share exceeded 10 percent for the first time.

"With the advance of large-scale wind and solar PV development, China has made a good start and new breakthroughs in the field of non-fossil energy for the 14th Five-Year Plan period until 2025," the report said.

China aims to reach a peak in carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

The country is aiming for 1,200 gigawatts of wind and solar generation capacity by 2030 in its nationally determined contribution commitment.

"For the first time in history, non-fossil energy capacity exceeded coal power, and the installed capacity of renewable energy exceeded 1 billion kilowatts. In 2021, an additional 137 GW of non-fossil energy were installed, accounting for 78 percent of the country's newly installed capacity," the report said.

China's switch to green energy has been reinforced in a series of policy documents. Other documents have covered action on industrial carbon; green and low-carbon transportation; and on carbon reduction with the circular economy.

In the transportation sector, China sold more than 3.5 million new-energy vehicles last year.

Nan Zhou, a senior scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said China needs to further improve the efficiency of its industries. She also said electric vehicles would make even deeper inroads.