A tough task to cap emissions by around 2030

But since China is expected to maintain a grow rate of 4-5 percent around 2030, it has a more daunting task in hand, for it will have to keep its carbon emission per unit of GDP lower than what the developed countries did to reach their emissions peak. Also, since the demand for energy will continue to grow after carbon emissions peak, perhaps a major part of newly added energy has to come from non-fossil fuels for a long time.

He says China needs to increase its wind and solar power capacity by 20 million kilowatts each and nuclear power capacity by 10 million kilowatts a year between 2020 and 2030 to achieve the goal. That would be equivalent to installing ten 5-megawatt wind turbines a day or ten 1-million-kilowatts nuclear power units a year between 2020 and 2030.

It is thus important to evaluate if the existing policies are sufficient enough to achieve the goals and change them, if necessary, says Li Junfeng, director of the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, a national think tank.

Other experts say more room should be created to allow rapid development of renewable energies, because in the national energy development plan (2014-20) announced on Nov 19, the proportion of coal remains high.

Since it would be unrealistic to leave the resolution of too many issues for the 2020-30 period, action must be taken earlier to shape China's green future and hoist it at the forefront of the global campaign for sustainable development.

The author is a senior writer with China Daily. lanlan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 11/22/2014 page5)