Cooperation key to reaching climate goals

The paper argued that China's low-carbon transition can act as a new driver for growth, facilitate economic upgrading, offer better job opportunities and help ensure energy security.

Yvonne Zhou, a managing director of the Boston Consulting Group, said that China will invest up to 250 trillion yuan ($35 trillion) by 2050 in order to reach its goals and that this will be the largest investment in the world to cut carbon emissions.

"This is why I am so confident in China," she told a conference on China's carbon neutrality on Sept 22.

Zhou said that China's carbon reduction is "extremely significant", and not just for sustainable development. That huge investment will also create many new technologies, new business models, new products, new companies and even new sectors.

She added that it is likely to contribute to 2 to 3 percent of China's GDP growth in the years leading up to 2050.

Solheim is confident that China can achieve its goals, but said that it will not be easy.

"It demands a concerted effort by leaders of State and Party, Chinese businesses and citizens. The most important factor is the transformation of energy from fossil fuels to renewables," he said.

"In the end, going green is a triple win for China. It will grow the economy and create jobs, improve health and lives and protect Mother Earth better."

Qin echoed these views, saying that industrial transformation is critical to China and that it must switch to high-quality growth and improve its energy mix.

Huang believes that China has made every effort to live up to its promises.

The Minister of Ecology and Environment said that to make its energy mix greener, China's installed renewable energy capacity has reached 1 billion kW, an increase of 210 percent from a decade ago, and the country is also the global leader in installed capacities of wind, photovoltaic, hydro and biomass power.

China's national carbon trading market, launched in July last year, includes more than 2,100 major power-generation companies and has become the largest in the world in terms of total emissions covered.

"Our attitude toward carbon-peaking and carbon-neutrality goals is steadfast. Promises must be kept, and actions must be resolute," he said.