(Bloomberg) -- China is planning a shift in the way it aims to control greenhouse gases, favoring hard targets for total carbon emissions over its current method of measuring them against economic growth.
China, the world’s biggest source of planet-warming pollution, has for years set targets that aim to reduce energy use or emissions per unit of gross domestic product, a system it refers to as intensity. That approach has allowed China to tout environmental successes even as its total emissions soared, so long as they didn’t grow faster than the overall economy.
For the 15th five-year plan period starting in 2026, China will set targets for overall volumes of emissions, although at first they will remain secondary to intensity targets, according to a State Council work plan published Friday. After China reaches peak emissions — currently targeted before 2030 — overall volumes will become the main targets as intensity is de-prioritized, according to the plan.
China currently aims to reach net zero by 2060. While that target hasn’t changed, the country is adding clean energy at a world-leading pace. That’s raised hopes that it may have already reached peak emissions this year, well ahead of its 2030 goal.
China’s current five-year plan, which runs through 2025, called for an 18% drop in emissions intensity and 13.5% reduction in energy intensity. But after battling Covid and a global energy crisis, the country is on pace to fail on both measures, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air said in a report earlier this year.
Energy intensity will no longer be used as an enforceable metric starting with the next five-year plan, the State Council said.
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(Updates with additional details in fifth and sixth paragraphs.)
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