IEA China can accelerate the energy transition and would benefit

China is the first country in the world in _CO2 emissions – the main gas responsible for the greenhouse effect – with a third of the total. Its steel and cement industry alone generate more carbon than the entire European Union.

China not only has the capabilities to accelerate the energy transition that reduces its greenhouse gas emissions compared to the targets it has set, but it would benefit socially and economically, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

“Investment needs are not a barrier to a faster transition,” as the amount of money needed is similar to that required to meet current targets, he said in a report released Wednesday on the path for Chine to reach carbon dioxide (CO) neutrality.₂).

Last year, Beijing set a goal of reaching peak _CO2 emissions by 2030 to reach net zero emissions by 2060.

The report’s authors point out that, “given the size and dynamism of its economy,” China will have no difficulty coping with the precise investments, which are not detailed.

The IEA goes further and explores a more ambitious scenario in which China would reduce its emissions by almost 20% by 2030.

Their conclusion is that, in addition to helping mitigate the impact on global climate change in order to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius, for China that would mean “social and economic benefits.”

Among those improvements would be “greater prosperity for regions that have not yet fully benefited from economic development and greater net job creation.”

“This accelerated transition would put China’s _CO2 emissions in a marked decline after 2025 and open up the possibility for it to reach carbon neutrality well before 2060. It would be good for China and for the world,” said the director-general of the organization that brings together most of the members of the OECD.

China is the first country in the world in _CO2 emissions – the main gas responsible for the greenhouse effect – with a third of the total. Its steel and cement industry alone generate more carbon than the entire European Union.

Although it has made remarkable progress towards a clean transition (it has the largest solar power capacities and 70% of those for the manufacture of electric batteries for vehicles), about 60% of its electricity is still produced in coal-fired power plants, the number of which continues to grow.

For the current decade, the main vectors to advance in that transition, according to the IEA, will be improvements in efficiency, the deployment of more renewable energies and less use of coal.

– 66.2% of installed capacity in El Salvador is renewable energy

In its roadmap, the capacities of renewables in electricity generation, essentially solar photovoltaic and wind, would increase sevenfold between 2020 and 2060, to represent about 80% of the total.

Industrial _CO2 emissions would fall by almost 95%, thanks in particular to the emergence of innovative technologies such as hydrogen or carbon capture, especially from 2030.

All this would allow the creation of more jobs in these activities than will be destroyed by the abandonment of sectors that involve fossil fuels.

Source: The Economist