US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry (left) meets China Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua in Shanghai. (File photo: Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment)

China's recent commitment to curb coal consumption and coal-fired power projects has sent a strong signal that the country will unswervingly reduce its reliance on coal as a dominant source of energy, experts said.

China strives to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. How can China achieve these goals? What do they mean to China and the world?

While global attention centers on China's economic targets as top officials meet in Beijing to map out blueprints for the country's development over the next five years and beyond, policies on environmental protection, specifically reducing carbon emissions, are expected to be highlighted in the new 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25), Chinese experts said.

On the evening of August 26, 2021, People’s Government of Bayannur Municipality, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and Energy Foundation China (EF China) held an on-line signing ceremony for a three-year memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the two parties.

In mid-August, Ji ZOU, CEO and President of Energy Foundation China, was invited to deliver a lecture about technology, investment, and policy support for the achievement of China’s carbon peaking and neutrality goals to China Three Gorges Corporation (CTG), the world’s largest hydropower development enterprise.

In late July, Ji ZOU, CEO and President of Energy Foundation China, was invited to Bayannur, Inner Mongolia to deliver a lecture about how to build a new growth engine and accelerate industrial upgrade through carbon peaking and neutrality goals, and in the near future dual control targets for total energy consumption and intensity.

December 10, 2020, Multiple Cities—Energy Foundation China launched a new report today, China’s New Growth Pathway: from the 14th Five Year Plan to Carbon Neutrality, a major deliverable of our Long-Term Strategy Task Force. It provides an overall picture of the pathways which support China’s carbon neutrality goal and its new vision for growth and development. The report identifies both long-term sectoral strategies and near-term actions to prepare China to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

The Coal Transition Quarterly is a serial newsletter of the Coal Transition Initiative at Energy Foundation China (EFC). It provides an overview of major developments on coal phase-out and environmental, social, and economic issues in China and beyond.

In mid-May 2021, Energy Foundation China (EF China) and media outlet China News Service held the fourth event of the “Sustainable Energy for a Prosperous China” forum series for journalists, focused on early peaking of carbon emissions, fast and ambitious local action, and the energy sector.

Shanghai celebrated a major achievement for green urban development and people-friendly mobility in September 2020 as the iconic Nanjing East Road became fully pedestrianized.

Energy Foundation China presents a report commissioned to European thinktanks Sandbag and E3G to analyze the impacts of the European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) on Chinese stakeholders.

Supported by Energy Foundation China, the China Association for NGO Cooperation compiled and published in June 2021 a series of stories about how China’s citizens and civil society take climate action.

In 2020, Energy Foundation China started to support an analysis examining the impact of land use structure on carbon and criteria air pollutant emissions, which was conducted by China Sustainable Transportation Center, Chinese Land Surveying and Planning Institute, and Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning. Their findings were published in this report in May 2021.

In 2021, with support from Energy Foundation China, the Natural Resources Defense Council released this case study report about individual low-carbon consumption behaviors in China.