Four Years Since the Major Declaration on Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality: "Top Ten Actions for Carbon Peak" Achieve Positive Results

On September 22, 2020, President Xi Jinping made a major declaration at the general debate of the 75th United Nations General Assembly that China strives to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Over the past four years, the National Development and Reform Commission and various regions and departments have adhered to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implemented Xi Jinping's economic and ecological civilization thoughts, earnestly carried out General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instructions on carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, strengthened systematic thinking, enhanced coordination, and focused on implementation, steadily advancing the "Ten Actions for Carbon Peaking," achieving positive progress.

I. Remarkable Achievements in the Green and Low-Carbon Energy Transition

(1) Accelerated Development of Non-Fossil Energy. By the end of July 2024, the total installed capacity of wind and solar power reached 1.206 billion kilowatts, 2.25 times that at the end of 2020, achieving the internationally promised installed capacity target more than six years ahead of schedule; installed capacity of hydropower and nuclear power increased by 58.19 million kilowatts and 8.19 million kilowatts respectively compared to the end of 2020. From 2020 to 2023, the share of non-fossil energy consumption rose from 15.9% to 17.9%.

(2) Continuous Deepening of Clean and Efficient Use of Fossil Energy. Since the 14th Five-Year Plan, over 700 million kilowatts of coal power have undergone energy-saving and carbon-reduction retrofits, flexibility upgrades, and heating modifications. Compared with 2020, the national coal consumption share decreased by 1.6 percentage points in 2023, and the clean heating rate in northern regions increased by about 15 percentage points. In 2023, the average coal consumption for power generation dropped to 303 grams of standard coal per kilowatt-hour.

(3) Steady Progress in Building a New Power System. The capacity for cross-province and cross-region power resource allocation has continuously improved. By the end of 2023, the transmission capacity for sending electricity from west to east reached 300 million kilowatts, 40 million kilowatts higher than at the end of 2020. The power system's flexible adjustment capability has been continuously enhanced. By the end of 2023, the installed capacity of thermal power with flexible adjustment reached nearly 700 million kilowatts. By the end of June this year, pumped storage installed capacity was 54.39 million kilowatts, new energy storage capacity reached 44.44 million kilowatts/99.06 million kilowatt-hours, with an average storage duration of 2.2 hours.

II. Comprehensive Advancement of Energy Saving, Carbon Reduction, and Efficiency Improvement Actions

(1) Continuous Improvement of Energy Management Capacity. Optimized and improved the dual control system for energy consumption, excluding raw material energy use and non-fossil energy from total energy consumption and intensity control, and strengthened the connection between green certificates and energy saving and carbon reduction policies. Improved the energy-saving review system for fixed asset investment projects, strictly controlling the approval of new projects, effectively managing high energy-consuming and high-emission projects. Preliminary estimates show that after excluding raw material energy use and non-fossil energy consumption, the cumulative reduction in national energy intensity during the first three years of the 14th Five-Year Plan was about 7.3%.

(2) In-Depth Promotion of Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction Retrofits in Key Areas. Implemented energy saving and carbon reduction retrofits and equipment upgrades in key industries and fields. During the first three years of the 14th Five-Year Plan, energy consumption per unit of industrial added value in large-scale industries decreased cumulatively by 6.5%, and energy-saving retrofits of existing urban buildings exceeded 300 million square meters. Promoted energy and resource conservation in public institutions; in 2023, energy consumption per unit building area in public institutions nationwide decreased by about 3% compared to 2020. By the end of 2023, 90% of county-level and above government agencies had established energy-saving offices.

(3) Strengthened Implementation of a New Round of Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction Actions. In May this year, the State Council issued the "2024–2025 Energy Saving and Carbon Reduction Action Plan," detailing the goals and tasks for the last two years of the 14th Five-Year Plan by sector and industry, deploying ten key energy saving and carbon reduction actions in key areas. Special actions for energy saving and carbon reduction were implemented in steel, refining, synthetic ammonia, cement, electrolytic aluminum, data centers, and other industries, promoting low-carbon transformation and construction in coal power.

III. Smooth Progress in Carbon Peaking Actions in the Industrial Sector

(1) Continuous Optimization of Industrial Structure. Guided the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, basically eliminating backward production capacity in electrolytic aluminum, cement, and other industries. Developed new quality productive forces according to local conditions, building the world's largest and most complete new energy industry chain. In the first half of 2024, the proportion of high-tech manufacturing in large-scale industries reached 15.8%, an increase of 0.7 percentage points compared to 2020.

(2) Continuous Improvement of the Green Manufacturing System. Fully leveraged the demonstration role of green manufacturing benchmarks. To date, nearly 5,100 green factories and over 600 green supply chain management enterprises have been cultivated at the national level. Vigorously promoted green product design, selecting 451 industrial product green design demonstration enterprises and promoting about 35,000 green products.

(3) Steadily Strengthening the Foundation for Industrial Green and Low-Carbon Transformation. The standards system has been continuously improved, updating energy efficiency benchmark and baseline levels in key industrial fields, and releasing the "Advanced Energy Efficiency, Energy Saving, and Access Levels for Key Energy-Using Products and Equipment (2024 Edition)." Organized the construction of "dual carbon" public service platforms for key equipment manufacturing and key raw material industries, accelerating the establishment of a basic carbon footprint database for key products.

IV. Steady Progress in Carbon Peaking Actions in Urban and Rural Construction

(1) Continuous Deepening of Green and Low-Carbon Transformation in Urban and Rural Construction. Vigorously promoted green construction methods; in 2023, the proportion of prefabricated buildings in newly started affordable housing projects reached 80%. Actively applied green and low-carbon building materials, established a green building material product certification system, and improved green building material evaluation standards. Currently, there are over 4,000 certified green building material enterprises and more than 10,000 certified products. Promoted green and low-carbon design concepts; the 90 sponge city pilot projects nationwide have achieved remarkable results, effectively enhancing climate resilience.

(2) Continuous Improvement of Building Energy Efficiency Levels. Implemented energy saving and carbon reduction actions in the building sector, further raised building energy-saving standards, promoted energy saving and carbon reduction retrofits of existing buildings and municipal infrastructure, optimized energy-saving and carbon reduction designs for new buildings, and vigorously promoted ultra-low energy consumption buildings. In 2023, the newly built green building area in urban areas was about 2.07 billion square meters, accounting for 94% of newly built urban buildings. By the end of 2023, energy-saving buildings accounted for over 64% of the existing urban building area, and more than 43.7 million square meters of ultra-low energy and near-zero energy buildings had been completed cumulatively.

(3) Continuous Optimization of Building Energy Use Structure. Actively promoted clean heating in northern regions. The central government has invested a total of 120.9 billion yuan, driving local investments exceeding 400 billion yuan, strongly supporting local efforts to promote clean heating according to local conditions. In 2023, the clean heating rate in northern regions was nearly 80%. Continued to improve the electrification level of building terminals, promoting solar water heaters, electric cooking, and other applications.

V. Effective Results in Green and Low-Carbon Actions in Transportation

(1) Accelerated Low-Carbon Transformation of Transportation Equipment. Production and sales of new energy vehicles have ranked first globally for nine consecutive years. By the end of June this year, the national stock of new energy vehicles reached 24.72 million, nearly five times that at the end of 2020. According to the Automobile Dealers Association, the penetration rate of new energy vehicles reached 53.9% in August this year, exceeding 50% for two consecutive months. By the end of 2023, among urban buses, the proportions of pure electric, hybrid, natural gas, and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were 69.4%, 11.1%, 10.8%, and 0.7% respectively; the national railway electrification rate reached 73.8%.

(2) Accelerating the construction of a green and efficient transportation system. Significant results achieved in "road-to-rail" and "road-to-water" transfers. From January to August this year, the national railway completed a cumulative freight volume of 3.38 billion tons, a year-on-year increase of 1.7%; from January to July, the waterway completed a cumulative freight volume of 5.49 billion tons, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%. High-quality development of multimodal transport: in 2023, the national port container rail-water intermodal transport volume reached 10.18 million TEUs, a year-on-year increase of 15.9%. Organized 109 cities to carry out green travel creation actions. By the end of 2023, 55 cities had opened 306 urban rail transit lines.

(3) Continuous improvement of green transportation infrastructure. The charging infrastructure network is accelerating construction. By the end of July this year, a total of 10.604 million charging piles have been built nationwide, with 27,200 charging piles built in highway service areas (including parking areas), basically achieving full coverage of service areas. The construction of green highways is accelerating; currently, the recycling rate of waste pavement materials on highways has reached over 95%.

6. Circular economy accelerates the pace of carbon reduction actions

(1) The waste recycling management system is continuously improving. Continuously promoting the construction of industrial, agricultural, and social source recycling management systems. From January to August this year, more than 5,900 intelligent community waste material recycling facilities were newly added nationwide. In large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in activities, emphasis is placed on strengthening recycling and reuse, accelerating the development of the "trade-in + recycling" logistics system and new models. From January to August this year, the national scrapped vehicle recycling volume increased by 42.4% year-on-year.

(2) The level of waste resource utilization is steadily improving. Strengthening comprehensive utilization of bulk solid waste, accelerating efficient use of renewable resources, guiding the facilitation and standardization of second-hand goods transactions, and promoting remanufacturing of auto parts and others. In 2023, the comprehensive utilization rate of crop straw exceeded 88%, the comprehensive utilization rate of livestock and poultry manure exceeded 78%, and the agricultural film recycling rate remained stable above 80%; the recycling volumes of scrap steel and waste paper reached 260 million tons and 67.5 million tons respectively, accounting for about 21% and 70% of raw materials supplied to the production process.

(3) Support policies and guarantee mechanisms are continuously improved. Implementing the "reverse invoicing" policy for resource recycling enterprises selling scrapped products to individuals, and implementing tax incentives for comprehensive resource utilization. Strengthening land use guarantees, guiding localities to include land for circular economy development in municipal and county land spatial planning. Enhancing standard guidance, organizing the construction of national circular economy standardization pilot demonstration projects.

7. Green and low-carbon technological innovation actions continue to deepen

(1) The green and low-carbon technology innovation mechanism is continuously improved. Issued the implementation plan for science and technology support for carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Fully leveraging platforms such as the National Green Technology Trading Center to promote the transformation of green technology achievements. Building national key laboratories in the "dual carbon" field. Continuously strengthening basic research and frontier technology layout in the low-carbon and zero-carbon fields within relevant national key R&D projects. Strengthening talent cultivation; currently, there are 31 "dual carbon" related first-level disciplines and 38 "dual carbon" related undergraduate majors nationwide.

(2) Strengthening research, development, promotion, and application of advanced applicable technologies. Organizing and implementing green and low-carbon advanced technology demonstration projects, publishing the first batch of 47 green and low-carbon advanced technology demonstration project lists, and officially launching the application for the second batch of demonstration projects. Released the "National Green and Low-Carbon Advanced Technology Achievement Catalog." Established the "14th Five-Year" energy technology planning implementation monitoring project database, with over 700 projects included in the first batch.

8. Carbon sink capacity consolidation and enhancement actions are progressing orderly

(1) The carbon sequestration function of ecosystems continues to be consolidated. Adhering to green and low-carbon orientation to optimize various spatial layouts. Strictly guarding natural ecological safety boundaries, strengthening review, supervision, and evaluation of ecological protection red lines and protection effectiveness, continuously promoting the implementation of grassland grazing bans, rest grazing, and grass-livestock balance systems, focusing on stabilizing the carbon sequestration functions of existing forests, grasslands, wetlands, oceans, soils, permafrost, karst, and others. It is estimated that the annual carbon sink of forests and grasslands in China currently exceeds 1.2 billion tons of CO2 equivalent, ranking first in the world.

(2) The carbon sink capacity of ecosystems is steadily improving. Vigorously implementing major ecological protection and restoration projects such as the "Three-North" Shelter Forest Program, coordinating large-scale land greening actions, desertification control, and wetland protection and restoration, and comprehensively promoting marine ecological protection and restoration. China is the first in the world to achieve "zero growth" in land degradation and a "double reduction" in desertified and sandy land areas. The forest coverage rate in China has reached 24.02%, with a forest stock volume of about 19.5 billion cubic meters, becoming the country with the largest and fastest global forest resource growth during the same period.

(3) The foundation of ecosystem carbon sink is continuously strengthened. Establishing and improving the forest and grassland carbon sink measurement, monitoring, and evaluation system, actively promoting the construction of marine carbon sink standard systems. The State Council issued the "Ecological Protection Compensation Regulations," promoting ecological protection compensation work into a new stage of legalization. Continuously improving the ecological product value realization mechanism. Conducting in-depth investigations and research on carbon sink capacity and potential. Aiming to consolidate and enhance forest and grassland carbon sink capacity, forest carbon sink pilots are carried out in 18 cities (counties) and 21 state-owned forest farms.

9. Positive results in nationwide green and low-carbon actions

(1) Publicity, education, and training continue to deepen. Utilizing activities such as National Ecology Day, National Energy Conservation Publicity Week, and National Low Carbon Day, spreading Xi Jinping's ecological civilization thought widely through multiple channels and methods, vigorously promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction publicity and education. Incorporating ecological civilization education into the national education system, carrying out various forms of resource and environmental national condition education. Strengthening education and training for leading cadres, publishing "Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality Cadre Reader," and holding special seminars to promote green and low-carbon development.

(2) Green and low-carbon lifestyles are more widely adopted. The national water-saving action is solidly advancing, with four batches totaling 194 mature and applicable water-saving technologies selected and published in the national promotion catalog. In 2023, the national per capita comprehensive water consumption was 419 cubic meters, a year-on-year decrease of 1.4%. Anti-food waste work is deeply carried out, incorporating anti-food waste into various civilization creation activities, village regulations, and customs, continuously promoting changes in social habits. Household waste classification is progressing orderly; currently, the coverage rate of household waste classification in residential communities in cities at or above the prefecture level exceeds 90%, and the harmless treatment rate of urban household waste exceeds 99.9%. Green living creation actions are advancing deeply.

10. Orderly implementation of tiered carbon peak actions across regions

All 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) have formulated their own carbon peak implementation plans based on local resource and environmental endowments, industrial layout, and development stages, scientifically and reasonably determining orderly peak targets, and steadily promoting local green and low-carbon development. The National Development and Reform Commission organized the construction of national carbon peak pilot projects, selecting the first batch of 35 pilot cities and parks, providing support in policies, funds, technology, and other aspects, offering a batch of operable, replicable, and promotable experiences nationwide.

In addition, the new round of large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in actions implemented since the beginning of this year is accelerating the release of policy effectiveness, strongly driving investment growth and unleashing consumption potential. From January to August this year, investment in equipment and tools purchase increased by 16.8% year-on-year, contributing 64.2% to total investment growth; retail sales of household appliances and audio-visual products increased by 2.5% year-on-year. This policy is also a powerful measure to promote "dual carbon" work, effectively promoting the application of advanced energy-saving and high-efficiency equipment, enabling more green, low-carbon, and high-quality consumer goods to enter residents' lives, which will drive the reduction of energy consumption and carbon emission intensity across society.

Next, the National Development and Reform Commission will be guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Second and Third Plenary Sessions of the 20th Central Committee, fully apply Xi Jinping's economic thought and ecological civilization thought, earnestly fulfill the coordination responsibilities related to the "dual carbon" goals, adhere to a China-centered approach and maintain strategic determination, and work with all regions and relevant departments to effectively implement the "Ten Major Actions for Carbon Peak." Leading with the work on carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, it will coordinate efforts to reduce carbon emissions, pollution, expand greenery, and promote growth, accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, ensure the timely achievement of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality targets, and speed up the modernization of harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.