China should impose cap on CO2 emissions: Advisory body

SHANGHAI • China needs to impose an absolute cap on carbon emissions during the 2021-2025 period to meet its climate goals, an influential government advisory body said in a new report.

China has no set cap on its greenhouse gas emissions - the world's highest at over 10 billion tonnes a year - but it plans to bring them to a peak before 2030 on its path towards becoming fully carbon-neutral by 2060.

The China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development (CCICED), a policy research body chaired by Vice-Premier Han Zheng, said the country needs to establish mechanisms to control absolute emission levels and impose caps on individual provinces and industries.

In recommendations published on Thursday, it also urged China to improve its flawed carbon pricing system, devise detailed plans and timetables to electrify its transport system and remove conventional vehicles, and to create a renewables-based energy system.

The council's specific role is to draw up policy recommendations for the government, but their adoption is not guaranteed.

As the world's biggest producer of climate-warming greenhouse gases, China's near-term ambitions are in the spotlight ahead of the next round of global talks in Glasgow in November.

China is about to release updated "nationally determined contributions" aimed at meeting the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement, but it has come under increasing pressure to do more to curb its coal consumption and slash investments in carbon-intensive projects both at home and abroad.

The CCICED said China should "restrict and gradually stop" the use of public funds in overseas coal power investment, as well as "take the initiative" in international climate cooperation and governance.

"It is recommended that China actively assumes the responsibility of a major country to promote global green and low-carbon development," it said.

REUTERS