Delegates sharpen focus on meeting carbon goals

While browsing the internet recently, I was surprised to find that some foreign media are casting increasing doubt on whether China can realize its ambitious target of going carbon neutral before 2060.

The main point they used to support their skepticism is that China still depends on coal to meet its energy demands.

As an environmental reporter who has been following the topic of climate change for years, I have to explicitly tell them that they are holding improperly informed opinions that will surely prove to be wrong.

What I have seen at the annual sessions of the National People's Congress and the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference has further confirmed my belief that China will surely declare a victory in its campaign to reduce carbon emissions.

At a news conference late last month, Liu Youbin, spokesman for the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that last year, the ministry handled 1,294 suggestions and proposals from national legislators and political advisers.

Of them, 20 percent were related to the country's targets of peaking carbon dioxide emissions before the end of this decade and realizing carbon neutrality before 2060, which was announced in September 2020.

As national legislators and political advisers gather in Beijing again this year for the two sessions, I personally feel that they remain enthusiastic about promoting climate action.

But I also found that this year, they are no longer mainly focused on macro issues, such as reducing emissions from smokestack industries and the development of renewable energies, but have also turned their attention to niche sectors involving carbon reduction.

For example, at least four NPC deputies made suggestions about introducing policies to promote carbon ledger programs for individuals, which are known as tanpuhui in Chinese.

These programs record public carbon reduction efforts and transform them into tradable carbon credits to encourage the adoption of low-carbon behavior.

Zhou Yunjie, an NPC deputy and chairman of the Haier Group board, for instance, suggested launching pilot tanpuhui programs and enacting a law to promote the mechanism.

Another suggestion from NPC deputy Zhang Tianren on tanpuhui is even more concrete. Zhang, who is also chairman of the board at Tianneng Group, one of China's largest battery manufacturers, suggested establishing a methodology for calculating carbon emission reductions that result from the trading of secondhand products, so that the tanpuhui mechanism can be applied to reused goods.

China announced its ambitious climate targets in September 2020 and presented a "1+N" policy system for the targets about two years later.

The "1" in the system represents the master guideline issued by the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council, China's Cabinet, which serves as an overarching guide for the targets. The "N" stands for a series of specific action plans for different industrial sectors and supporting policies.

Meanwhile, regions across the country have worked out their action plans to peak carbon dioxide emissions.

With the system in place, China has accomplished its macro-level design for climate targets. Now, we are at a stage of introducing specific measures. With mechanisms like tanpuhui, more people will get involved in climate mitigation. That, I believe, will be the real force driving China's green development.

This is not the first time China has been confronted by doubts from foreign media, and it won't be the last. However, I do believe we will forge ahead amid skepticism, as we always do.

Coal constitutes 94 percent of the country's fossil fuel reserves. We cannot change that fact, and it's true that we will have to depend on black fuel for a while.

But as President Xi Jinping said while addressing the Climate Ambition Summit in late 2020, China always honors its commitments. I have no doubt that for carbon neutrality, this will also be the case.