Four Numbers to Gauge China’s Climate Ambitions
Five Year Plans tend to be some mix of jargon and bluster. But there are a few areas where we could see some tangible targets, which could shape global efforts to curb carbon emissions.
Could this all disappear?
Photographer: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images AsiaPacChina will begin its biggest political meeting of the year with a grim mark on its record. Despite President Xi Jinping’s pledge in September to reduce carbon emissions to net zero in 2060, the country was the only major economy last year where pollution increased, according to International Energy Agency figures released Tuesday.
That makes the details of the country’s climate policy in its 14th Five Year Plan published Friday crucial. If it lives up to Xi’s promise to cap emissions in the coming decade and push them down rapidly thereafter, the world will have started turning the corner on two centuries of carbon emissions, as we’ve argued. If it falls short, our prospects of avoiding the ravages of climate change will dwindle drastically.