By Cheng Chen, People’s Daily
At a time when some developed countries are retreating from their climate commitments, why does China, as a developing country, remain steadfast in pursuing carbon reduction?
The most immediate answer lies in the growing threat global warming poses to human survival and the future of human civilization.
Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide are primary culprits of climate change. In this context, “carbon” refers broadly to these greenhouse gases.
The United Nations has repeatedly warned that there is a direct link between increasing emissions and increasingly frequent and intense climate disasters.
The planet is warming at an alarming pace. The World Meteorological Organization has confirmed that 2024 is the warmest year on record, marked by a surge in extreme weather events. Record-high monthly precipitation values were 27 percent higher than for the baseline period, while daily precipitation extremes were 52 percent more common in 2024 than during 1995-2005.
No country can remain immune to the impacts of global warming. According to China’s National Climate Center, the Chinese national average reading in 2024 stood at 10.9 degrees Celsius, the highest since 1951. The average temperature in China that year was the highest since 1961, when the country began compiling complete meteorological observation records. Meanwhile, average precipitation across the country reached 697.7 mm, 9 percent more than the annual average. These climate anomalies have disrupted agricultural production, endangered lives, and caused property losses.
Beyond these immediate concerns, China’s commitment to carbon reduction is also driven by deeper international and domestic considerations.
On the international front, China’s carbon reductioncommitment reflects both its responsibility as a major country and the pressing need to build a community with a shared future for mankind.China’s experience and practices in carbon reduction can help other developing countries enhance their capacity to address climate change, thereby contributing to the global transition toward a sustainable future.
As an important participant, contributor, and leader in global ecological progress, China is deeply engaged in global environmental governance and continues to increase its influence and voice in the global environmental governance system. The country has built the world’s largest and most complete new energy industrial chain. In 2023 alone, its export of wind and photovoltaic products helped reduce carbon emissions by around 810 million tons in recipient countries.
On the domestic front, carbon reduction contributes to China’s green, low-carbon transformation and sustainable development.It helps improve China’s ecological environment and promotes the harmonious coexistence between humans and nature.
China has made significant adjustments to its energy mix, with robust growth in hydropower, nuclear, wind and solar power.These shifts have reduced emissions of both greenhouse gases and pollutants including PM2.5. Between 2015 and 2023, the average PM2.5 concentration in Chinese cities at the prefecture level and above dropped by more than 30 percent. From 2013 to 2022, while GDP in China’s Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region grew by 60 percent, PM2.5 concentrations fell by more than 60 percent.
Carbon reduction also helps address resource and environmental constraints, enabling sustainable development. China now leads the world in installed capacities for wind, photovoltaic, hydro, and biomass power. Over the past decade, the share of coal in China’s energy consumption has dropped by 12.6 percentage points. Between 2013 and 2023, China has supported average annual economic growth of 6.1 percent with a 3.3 percent increase in energy consumption. In 2023, renewable energy accounted for roughly one third of China’s total electricity consumption.
In line with the trend of technological development, carbon reduction helps drive economic structure transformation and upgrading. China has phased out over 150 million tons of outdated steel production capacity and completed ultra-low emission upgrades for 134 million tons of steel capacity. The country boasts the world’s largest, most comprehensive and most competitive clean energy industrial chain, accounting for over 80 percent of global output in polysilicon, wafers, solar cells and modules, as well as 60 percent of global wind turbine manufacturing capacity.
At its core, the question of why China continues to reduce carbon emissions is inseparable from the broader question of how it defines development.
Even as some countries waver in their climate commitments, China remains resolute, as the development path it pursues is one that truly responds to people’sgrowing aspirations for a better life and is underpinned by the new development philosophy.
Green development is the defining feature of China’s high-quality development, and carbon reduction is essential to achieving it. In advancing carbon reduction, China is also transforming its development model.
