China's President Xi Jinping announced on Tuesday, during the United Nations General Assembly, that their country will no longer finance the construction of new coal-fired power plants abroad. This announcement comes before the COP26 meeting in November in Glasgow, Scotland, where countries discuss new climate change commitments.
The decision of China to stop building coal-fired power plants overseas could limit the worldwide expansion of coal, which in turn could lessen the production of heat-trapping emissions. Scientists have warned that global emissions should fall to almost 50% by 2030 to avoid extreme heatwaves, drought, and storms.
Countries Urge China to Bring Forward Stronger Climate Pledge
Yahoo! Finance reported that if China's pledge is maintained, it could mark a breakthrough in the efforts of fighting climate change and transition its global power from the most carbon-emitting fuel.
China currently has the largest population in the world, with over 1.4 billion people, and is considered the largest emitter of greenhouse gases globally. Their move to stop overseas financing of coal-fired power plants is appreciated by other countries, but they are also urging China to bring forward stronger commitment.
In his pledge on Tuesday, President Xi reiterated that China's climate pledge that its greenhouse gas emissions will peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. However, the Chinese president has not further details about its strengthened domestic commitments as they continue to use coal power plants.
In a separate report by Yahoo! News, senior strategic director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, Jake Schmidt, said that he hopes this pledge from China will not be the end of it. Experts estimated that the move could save emissions to an equivalent of one-fifth of the coal fleet in the US.
However, China has yet to cut back its use of coal domestically. The country accounts for 27% of global emissions and even unveiled its plan to build 43 new coal power plant units. These domestic coal power plants are major reasons for the new record-high greenhouse gas emissions recorded in China earlier this year.
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China's Climate Pledge Largely Consistent With Paris Agreement
The Paris Agreement is "a legally binding international treaty on climate change" adopted by 196 parties at COP 21 in 2015. It aims to set a limit to global warming to below 2C or preferably 1.5C. China and the US joined the treaty in the same year in 2016.
A paper, titled "Assessing China's Efforts to Pursue the 1.5°C Warming Limit," published in Science, reports that China must cut its carbon emissions and energy consumption by over 90% and 39% respectively by 2050 to reach the goal. According to Carbon Brief, that includes reduced fossil fuel consumption and the demand for coal to drop.
Moreover, the paper reports that China's goal to become carbon neutral by 2060 is largely consistent with the 1.5C warming limit set by the Paris Agreement. But as experts claim, China has to aim higher than its current net-zero goal and accomplish greater carbon emission reduction.
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