China is leaning into clean energy over emissions cuts to decarbonize its economy through the rest of the decade, a signal that energy policy is usurping climate targets.
The strategy, outlined in a policy document known as the 15th Five-Year Plan, calls for a 17 percent cut to China’s carbon intensity between 2026 and 2030. Carbon intensity is a measure of carbon dioxide pollution per unit of economic growth.
China’s booming clean energy installations would help facilitate those reductions. But it’s already missed its carbon intensity goals for the first half of the decade, making the 17 percent target inadequate to meet a key plank of its 2030 targets under the Paris Agreement, analysts say.
It really shows that “the focus is still on growing clean energy and seeing how far that goes [toward cutting carbon pollution] without making strong commitments to emission outcomes,” said Lauri Myllyvirta, co-founder of the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air, a research organization.
