Cleaning up

China's transition to low-carbon energy is a key contribution to advancing sustainable development

Over the past four decades, China has achieved extraordinary progress in economic and social development, emerging as the world's second-largest economy and contributing more than 30 percent to global economic growth. Meanwhile, resource constraints are growing increasingly tighter, and environmental carrying capacity is nearing its upper limit. An extensive, low-efficiency growth model that relies on low-cost factors can no longer be sustained, which means China must shift toward a high-quality energy transition and green development.

Most recently, China has emerged as a global leader in clean technology and clean energy. In 2025, China's total electricity consumption reached 10.37 trillion kilowatt-hours. Non-fossil energy accounted for 61.7 percent of total installed power generation capacity, while non-fossil energy and renewable energy took up 42.9 percent and 38 percent of total power generation respectively, according to the China Electricity Council.

Wind, solar and biomass power generation contributed 97 percent to the growth in national electricity consumption, while power generation from renewable energy sources has led to an approximate reduction of 3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. In the first half of 2026, installed renewable energy capacity reached 2.455 billion kW, accounting for 60.7 percent of total installed capacity, while renewable energy power generation hit 1.96 trillion kWh, making up 41.2 percent of total national electricity generation. According to a report by Xinhua News Agency, China supplies around 70 percent of the world's wind power equipment and 80 percent of the world's photovoltaic panels, which has helped reduce the global average cost of wind and solar power by 60 percent and 80 percent respectively.

To realize the dual goals of peaking carbon emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060, China has advanced top-level design and institutional planning for green low-carbon development. It has strictly controlled coal-fired power projects while pushing for the high-quality development of wind and solar power. China has announced that it has strictly limited the growth of coal consumption from 2021 to 2025, and will gradually reduce coal consumption between 2026 and 2030. By 2030, China's CO2 emissions per unit of GDP will drop by more than 65 percent compared with 2005 level, the share of non-fossil energy in primary energy consumption will reach around 25 percent, and total installed wind and solar capacity will exceed 1.2 billion kW. China continues to promote institutional reform in the electric power industry, actively advance the development of the carbon emissions trading market, and devote particular effort to building a well-regulated energy market.

The National Development and Reform Commission and the National Energy Administration have leveraged policy tools to prioritize the development of renewable energy and guarantee the purchase of clean energy. By prioritizing clean renewable power generation and procurement, the market is enabled to play a decisive role in resource allocation, which guarantees the clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient operation of the power system. From 2021 to 2025, China's energy consumption per unit of GDP saw a cumulative drop of more than 16 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. In 2025, the country's CO2 emissions per unit of GDP decreased by 5.0 percent compared with the previous year. China has intensified its efforts to curb the expansion of energy-intensive and high-emissions projects, shut down outdated production capacity, and strictly implemented market access standards for industries including steel and coking. From 2021 to 2025, energy consumption per unit of GDP decreased by more than 16 percent cumulatively; in 2025, non-fossil energy accounted for 21.7 percent of total national energy consumption.

As a responsible major country, China is actively advancing its energy transition and participating in the global response to climate change. China attaches equal importance to both its energy transition and energy supply stability. The power rationing that occurred in some Chinese regions in 2021 exposed the irrationality of the coal-dominated energy mix, strengthening China's resolve. The role of coal in the power system is shifting from the core energy source to a peak-shaving energy source.

China will develop green finance covering green credit, bonds, insurance and development funds, establish market-based green development funds, and refine the green credit guidance catalogue. The country is also introducing new financing models to drive independent innovation of enterprises in green low-carbon technologies. It can also focus on building digital energy systems, constructing a new-type electric power system, promoting multi-stakeholder participation in international energy transition and advancing the depoliticization of energy governance.

Accelerating China's domestic energy transition will promote greater coordination across the global energy system. Through supporting renewable energy growth, directing capital toward low-carbon sectors, driving technological innovation, and transforming consumption patterns, China can secure a competitive position in global green industrial, supply and value chains.

As President Xi Jinping has pointed out, the decision to create a new development pattern with the domestic economy as the mainstay, and the domestic economy and international engagement providing mutual reinforcement, is a strategic choice to reshape China's advantages in international cooperation and competition.

In recent years, overseas market growth has weakened while China's domestic demand has kept an upward trend. Low-carbon development has become a core benchmark of national competitiveness around the world.

In the context of global governance reform and economic recovery, China's transition to low-carbon energy serves as an important instrument for advancing sustainable development and building a clean world. China has integrated the carbon peak and neutrality goals into the overall master plan for ecological conservation. As the largest developing country and a responsible major nation, China can offer solutions to the current challenges in the global low-carbon transition through its own experience and international cooperation.

Looking ahead, China will drive the energy transition across the world by accelerating its domestic transition, coordinating major-country cooperation in the transition process, advancing global ecological conservation and the construction of a community with a shared future for humanity and establishing ecological civilization as the mainstream norm of global environmental governance.

Yu Hongyuan is the executive director of the Center for Polar and Oceanic Studies at Tongji University. Huang Xia is the director of the International Mining Policy Division at the Development and Research Center at the China Geological Survey.

The authors contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.