Helen Briggs BBC 30 Jun 15;
China - the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases - has announced details of its climate action plan.
The office of Prime Minister Li Kegiang said that emissions "will peak by around 2030" and China would work hard to achieve the target even earlier.
The statement echoes China's declaration last November following a US-China summit.
China's pledge comes ahead of talks late this year in Paris to seek a new global deal on climate change.
The statement, released following a meeting in Paris between Li and French President Francois Hollande, said China aimed to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65% by 2030, from 2005 levels.
The carbon intensity target builds on a previous plan to cut carbon intensity by 40-45% by 2020.
China also aimed to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its primary energy consumption to about 20% by 2030, the statement added.
Beijing previously set a goal of getting around 15% of its energy from clean sources by 2020.
National plans
All countries involved in UN climate talks must submit national plans for cutting emissions ahead of the key Paris talks.
China joins several other countries, including the EU, US and Mexico, that have already committed their plans for tackling climate change, formally known by the UN as INDCs (intended nationally determined contribution).
With China's announcement, the world's biggest polluters - China, the US and the EU - have now all detailed their climate plans ahead of the global climate conference.
Commenting on the statement, Li Shuo, climate analyst for Greenpeace China, said for success in Paris, all players - including China and the EU - needed to up their game.
"Today's pledge must be seen as only the starting point for much more ambitious actions.
"It does not fully reflect the significant energy transition that is already taking place in China.
"Given the dramatic fall in coal consumption, robust renewable energy uptake, and the urgent need to address air pollution, we believe the country can go well beyond what it has proposed today."
Energy transition
China's new climate plan sends a strong message to other countries to do more on climate ahead of this year's negotiations for a new global climate deal, said WWF.
Samantha Smith, global climate leader at WWF, said China was the first major developing country emitter to set a total emissions peak target.
"In doing so, China has committed to both global climate security and to a transformational energy transition at home," she said.
"We emphasise the importance of the fact that China has made commitments beyond its responsibility as a developing country. But we hope that China will continue to find ways to reduce its emissions, which will in turn drive global markets for renewable energy and energy efficiency."
On Monday, at talks in Brussels with EU leaders, the Chinese Premier said the country was seeking a fair, global system to tackle climate change.
China will work with the international community to seek a "fair, reasonable, win-win" global climate governance system, Li said.
Analysis by the BBC's science editor, David Shukman
This is a significant moment in international climate negotiations. For years China argued that it was too poor and underdeveloped to even consider accepting any obligations to curb its greenhouse gases.
Now we're witnessing the world's largest emitter playing by the UN's rules and promising even deeper cuts that those suggested some months back. For diplomats and ministers hoping to see a meaningful deal at the climate summit in Paris at the end of the year, this will be a welcome step.
The size of cuts, and the timescale, will of course be judged by many as too little and too late. But for anyone who endured the collapse of talks at the Copenhagen summit six years ago, China is playing a very different and far more constructive game. Will it actually make any difference to global warming?
Scientists always say it does not matter to the atmosphere where the emissions come from and China's will continue to rise for the next 15 years or so, and on their already gargantuan scale.
And today's announcement does not mean that Chinese use of fossil fuels is coming to an end any time soon. On the same day that China has announced this climate plan it also began construction of a massive pipeline that will bring it a lot of gas from Russia.
China to cap rising emissions by 2030 in boost to Paris U.N. deal
* China will seek to peak emissions earlier than 2030
* Top greenhouse gas emitter outlines plans for Paris accord
* Beijing to cut carbon intensity of economy by 60-65 pct (Updates with reactions, Brazil plan, details)
Julien Ponthus Reuters 30 Jun 15;
PARIS, June 30 (Reuters) - China formally committed to halting the rise in its greenhouse gas emissions within the next 15 years on Tuesday, in a much anticipated strategy to help build a U.N. climate deal in 2015.
The world's top greenhouse gas emitter said it would invest more in clean energy and plant more carbon-absorbing forests as part of the plan.
The Chinese plan chimes with targets announced in November, when Beijing reached a key climate change deal with Washington to cap its emissions by 2030.
"China's carbon dioxide emission will peak by around 2030 and China will work hard to achieve the target at an even earlier date," Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in a statement after meeting French President Francois Hollande in Paris.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius called China's plan an "excellent sign" for the United Nations summit in Paris from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11, which intends to agree a global deal to combat climate change after past failures.
China did not, however, say at what level its emissions would peak. The cap is the first set by Beijing, which had argued that it needed to burn more fossil fuels to end poverty and that developed nations must lead in climate action.
In a new element beyond the U.S.-China deal, Beijing said it would cut its CO2 emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 60-65 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. That would deepen a 40-45 percent cut already set by Beijing for 2020.
The world's second-largest economy also aims to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its primary energy consumption to about 20 percent by 2030, the statement said, as part of a strategy to limit more heatwaves, floods and rising sea levels.
CARBON PRICE UP
Benchmark EU carbon prices rose after the news and were last 1.4 percent higher at 7.47 euros a tonne.
China accounts for a quarter of world greenhouse gases and its plan, submitted to the United Nations on Tuesday, means governments accounting for more than half the global total have now outlined goals for climate action beyond 2020.
About 40 countries emitting just over 30 percent of world emissions have previously submitted their plans, including the United States and the European Union. National plans will be the building blocks of a Paris accord.
Separately, the United States and Brazil pledged to increase their share of renewable energy in electricity generation.
South Korea said it would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 37 percent below business-as-usual levels, deeper than its earlier intention.
"The United States and China can no longer use inaction by the other as an excuse for ignoring the risks we all face from climate change. Both countries are acting," said Bob Perciasepe, president of the U.S. Center for Climate and Energy Solutions think-tank.
Many experts outside China reckon it can peak its emissions before 2030, given signs such as a fall in coal consumption in 2014. Beijing is under strong pressure to shift to renewable energies, partly to curb air pollution.
""In our estimates the peak would be around 2025 or even earlier," Hanna Fekete of the independent New Climate Institute think tank in Germany, which tracks pledges, told Reuters.
She said she did not think Beijing's plan would affect the group's estimates last year that global temperatures are set to rise by 3.1 degrees Celsius (5.6 Fahrenheit) by 2100, far above a U.N. ceiling of 2 degrees (3.6F). (Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas and Nina Chestney in London, Jeff Mason and Valerie Volcovici in Washington, Alister Doyle in Oslo, Meeyoung Cho in Seoul.; Writing by Michel Rose and Alister Doyle; Editing by Keith Weir and William Hardy)
