China Set To Surpass Its Climate Targets As Renewables Soar

New Scientist

"The latest figures confirm China's record-breaking shift toward renewable energy, away from coal" 

China's future: who needs coal? Xu Yu/Xinhua Press/Corbis

CHINA is surging ahead in its switch to renewables and away from coal – a move it claims will allow the nation to surpass its carbon emissions targets.
The country's solar and wind energy capacity soared last year by 74 and 34 per cent respectively compared with 2014, according to figures issued by China's National Bureau of Statistics this week.
Meanwhile, its consumption of coal dropped by 3.7 per cent, with imports down by a substantial 30 per cent.
The figures back up claims made last month by Xie Zhenhua, China's lead negotiator at the UN climate talks in Paris last December, that the country will "far surpass" its 2020 target to reduce carbon emissions per unit of national wealth (GDP) by 40 to 45 per cent from 2005 levels.
"The latest figures confirm China's record-breaking shift toward renewable power and away from coal," says Tim Buckley of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, an energy consultancy in Cleveland, Ohio.
"It's a really positive signal, a perfect example of an emerging economy trying to shift the way it develops," says Ranping Song of the World Resources Institute think tank in Washington DC. China is due to issue its next five-year economic plan this month. "So it's a perfect time to see how serious they are about tackling emissions," Song says.