Xi’s CO2 plan on the table

China’s Communist leaders will discuss Xi Jinping’s ambitious carbon neutral pledge in talks that began this week on the country’s economic strategy for the next five years.

The climate goals, which challenge the world’s biggest polluter to reach peak emissions in 2030 and go carbon neutral 30 years later, are the most concrete environmental action announced by Beijing yet, but are thin on public detail.

The plenary will discuss the draft five-year plan, to take effect from next year, which is expected to flesh out how a country that accounts for a quarter of the planet’s greenhouse gases will rewire the economy to meet Xi’s targets.

The economy is also expected to take a central position in the talks as Beijing tries to boost domestic consumption.

The draft plan will then be presented to its rubber- stamp parliament, the National People’s Congress, for formal approval.

The carbon promise, announced last month in a speech by Xi to the United Nations, came as a surprise because China has relied heavily on coal to spur its economic emergence from poverty to superpower status over the last few decades.

Its five-year plans are “not designed to attract votes or score political points as is done in the West by some politicians [but] are aimed at realising the people’s aspirations for a better life”, the official news agency Xinhua said over the weekend.

China’s economy saw an unprecedented contraction in the first three months of the year because of Covid19 shutdowns, but with infection rates being brought under control it has seen a strong recovery over the past six months.

Xinhua reported that pollution targets in the last plan had been met, and urban residents in China “now breathe in unpolluted air for 82% of the days in a year, and water quality has improved to sound levels”.

China’s new environmental targets have been welcomed by climate activists.

Beijing accused the United States of “obstructing” the global fight against emissions. — AFP