China plans to reduce carbon emissions at its own pace

According to a plan setting out a series of objectives to achieve carbon neutrality, Beijing wants to limit the use of fossil fuels to less than 20% by 2060.

© AP / Olivia Zhang

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The French president telephoned his Chinese counterpart on Tuesday, October 26.

On the issue of climate change, Emmanuel Macron asked Xi Jinping to send a "

" ahead of COP26 in Scotland by raising his level of ambition.

In a report released on Sunday, China began specifying the stages of its exit from coal.

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With our correspondent in Beijing,

The carbon-free march of the Chinese economy is likely to be longer than experts would like, but these 16 pages in Mandarin from the Chinese State Council have the merit of showing markers and a trajectory towards a peak in carbon emissions. in 2030.

A peak to be reached "

gently

"

We are not yet at the top of the mountain: we recently toured coal provinces in China where we saw trucks leaving mines,

, the latter coming from be relaunched in order to alleviate the energy crisis.

China is going at its own pace and the document makes it clear that it aims to reach this first level "

".

In 2030, the share of non-fossil fuels in energy consumption should therefore increase to 25%, or 65% of carbon intensity per unit of GDP compared to 2005.

Doubling of wind and solar farms

Another important direction: the Chinese government calls for imposing a ceiling on carbon emissions which does not exist for the moment.

The press release also mentions a doubling of the wind and solar farms, by focusing on strengthening the storage capacities of sustainable energies.

Finally, Beijing mentions an “

” development of civilian nuclear power, with, among other things, the development of plants still at the experimental stage, such as small modular floating reactors.

► To read also: Climate: the strong message of the World Meteorological Organization to the negotiators of the COP26

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