China has required central enterprises to draw up their work plans for peaking carbon emissions, push forward industry upgrading, optimize energy structure, develop and promote green and low-carbon technologies, and reduce pollution and carbon emissions, as reported by Xinhua on October 8. The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) of the State Council has summoned central enterprises to the online meeting that set out work arrangements toward China’s national climate goals, namely peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and reaching net-zero emissions by 2060. Previously, in August, the SASAC also published rules on energy conservation and ecological environmental protection. Meanwhile, the SASAC also asked central firms to include energy conservation, environmental protection, and national climate targets in their enterprise development strategies. 

The new requirements reaffirmed China’s aim to let state-owned enterprises (SOEs) play a leading role in the country’s energy transition course. According to the guideline published by the SASAC last December, China’s SOEs must decrease their energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of output value by 15% and 18% by 2025 from 2020 levels, respectively. For state-owned electricity generation firms, renewable energy is supposed to account for over 50% of their total power installations by 2025. As the world’s largest carbon dioxide emitter, China reduced its share of coal in its total energy consumption from 68% over the last decade to 56.8% at the end of 2020. During the same period, the proportion of clean energy in the energy mix rose from 14.5% to 25.5%.

Sources:

http://www.news.cn/2022-10/07/c_1129053642.html

http://www.sasac.gov.cn/n2588035/c22499825/content.html

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/china-calls-state-firms-cut-energy-consumption-amid-carbon-peak-goals-2021-12-30/

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202210/11/WS634562a5a310fd2b29e7be5a.html