• About
  • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
BREAKING: 40% of Fossil Fuels Now Under Development Must Stay in the Ground May 17, 2022
Rocky Mountain Glaciers ‘Past Tipping Point’, with Some Expected to Vanish by 2030 May 17, 2022
UK Activists Block Russian Oil Tanker From Docking in Essex May 17, 2022
EXCLUSIVE: Bid to Revive Doomed Nova Scotia LNG Project Collides with Germany’s Net-Zero Plans May 16, 2022
3,800 Residents Ordered to Evacuate after Flooding in Hay River, NWT May 16, 2022
Next
Prev
Home Jurisdictions China

Greenwashing Risk Could Stymie China’s Rise As World Climate Leader

January 16, 2022
Reading time: 4 minutes

China ‘moving to lead on climate change’

Author 'High Contrast'/Wikimedia Commons

11
SHARES
 

All the pieces are in place for China to step forward as a global climate leader, but the country’s next steps could determine whether its ambitious targets bring about substantive change or fade away into greenwashing.

“When our government says something, it is something that has to be achieved,” Beijing’s senior climate advisor Wang Zhongying told Carbon Brief, in a rare interview where he described how China is seriously pursuing its climate policy—framed in two documents submitted to the UN last October. One of them was a revised 2030 pledge that confirmed the country would peak CO2 emissions before 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2060. The second document is a long-term strategy (LTS) on how to get there.

Both documents were met with international disappointment at the time. However, experts say that if they are fully implemented, they could lead China to achieve a lower emissions peak ahead of schedule, Carbon Brief writes.

The pledge and LTS set out concrete targets like “reducing CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by more than 65% from 2005 levels” and increasing the share of energy from renewable sources from 25% to 80%. Still, there are road bumps ahead. They include not only “the technical challenges of turning away from its heavy reliance on coal and rapidly scaling up replacement clean energy, but also the need to balance sometimes competing priorities in terms of economic growth, social cohesion, and international relations,” Carbon Brief explains.

The country will also need to develop national standards or mechanisms to crack down on dubious claims of carbon neutrality, as growing climate awareness in China is accompanied by “unprecedented levels of hype and greenwashing,” reports Bloomberg. Though many products are being marketed as carbon neutral, companies are not following up with information to verify emissions or offsets.

“To unify the crediting and verification system will be the next step to go for China,” said Qin Yan, lead carbon analyst at Refinitiv. “The Chinese way is top-down and it relies on administrative regulations, while in Europe there is supervision from independent groups, and the media often calls out companies’ greenwashing behaviours.”

For instance, Chinese oil and gas producers are able to establish carbon neutrality plans for their operations without addressing emissions from the fuel being consumed, and companies are using the term “clean coal” to try to justify investments in the offensive fuel. Poor regulation could get in the way of reaching climate targets, Bloomberg says, if companies can get away with carbon neutrality plans that are only “vague promises rather than concrete measures.”

Still, Chinese leaders do seem to be taking the matter seriously. Climate goals were emphasized during China’s highest-level economic planning meeting in December, where leaders also “called on the country to ‘correctly recognize and understand’ five ‘new major theoretical and practical issues,’ which included the goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality,” reports Carbon Brief.

There have also been encouraging improvements to air quality in Beijing, contrary to the doubts of pessimistic residents. Strong emissions standards and control technologies applied to high-emitting industries, the elimination of coal-based heating and cooking at the home and district levels, and a slowdown in coal consumption growth since 2013 all helped the city meet national air quality targets in 2021 for the first time. Strong incentives for governments to sustain the improvements, and public expectations that they do so, indicate that the progress marks real change, the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air says.

If China can overcome its challenges and  maintain this momentum, it has an opportunity to emerge as a world leader on climate, especially as other countries make compromises and lag behind. The European Union, China, Russia, and South Korea have all recently drafted green taxonomies to facilitate sustainable investing. However, both South Korea and the EU have bowed to politics and lobbying by including gas in their taxonomies, giving green investors a go-ahead to put money in gas despite its high methane and carbon emissions, reports the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

China, however, has so far held the line to exclude gas, a move that could put the country in a better position to fulfill its climate commitments. The taxonomy will also help form the green finance system to drive China’s transition beyond the capacity of government funds.

“Capital providers around the world are urging governments to step up and commit to clear, strong, and investable policies that will unlock the capital needed to transition to a net-zero economy,” writes IEEFA. “China has a lot to be proud of with its green taxonomy,” and “if it remains strategic, China could see private capital mobilized expeditiously to plug its energy transition financing gap.”



in Carbon Levels & Measurement, China, Cities & Communities, Climate Denial & Greenwashing, Coal, Community Climate Finance, Ending Emissions, Energy / Carbon Pricing & Economics, Energy Politics, International Agencies & Studies, Legal & Regulatory, Oil & Gas

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

Mounting Drought Risk Confronts London, Other World Cities
Drought, Famine & Wildfires

Mounting Drought Risk Confronts London, Other World Cities

May 19, 2022
127
85,000-Hectare Fort Mac Wildfire Expected to Grow for Days
Drought, Famine & Wildfires

Six Traumatic Years After ‘The Beast’, Fort McMurray Remains Loyal to Big Oil

May 19, 2022
88
‘New New Math’ Means Keeping Even More Fossils in the Ground: McKibben
International Security & War

U.S. Can’t Drill Its Way to Energy Security, Jenkins Warns

May 19, 2022
58

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

Mounting Drought Risk Confronts London, Other World Cities

Mounting Drought Risk Confronts London, Other World Cities

May 19, 2022
127
85,000-Hectare Fort Mac Wildfire Expected to Grow for Days

Six Traumatic Years After ‘The Beast’, Fort McMurray Remains Loyal to Big Oil

May 19, 2022
88
Ontario Contemplates ‘Ultra-Low Carbon’ Super-Agency

Ontario’s New Highway 413 Would Boost Emissions, Bake In ‘Auto-Dependent Sprawl’

May 19, 2022
64

BREAKING: 40% of Fossil Fuels Now Under Development Must Stay in the Ground

May 18, 2022
432
New Congressional Funding, Tax Credit Extensions Create ‘Enabling Conditions for Decarbonization’

ESG Becomes Latest ‘Acronym-Based Outrage’ in U.S. Republicans’ Culture Wars

May 19, 2022
63
‘New New Math’ Means Keeping Even More Fossils in the Ground: McKibben

U.S. Can’t Drill Its Way to Energy Security, Jenkins Warns

May 19, 2022
58

Recent Posts

Newfoundland Offers Suncor $175 Million to Restart Terra Nova Offshore Oilfield

Newfoundland Opens New Round of Offshore Oil Bidding

May 19, 2022
51
Farmers’ Mental Health Strained by Climate-Driven Weather Extremes

Farmers’ Mental Health Strained by Climate-Driven Weather Extremes

May 19, 2022
51
Calgary Company to Supply 180 MWh of Battery Capacity to Alberta Grid

Calgary Company to Supply 180 MWh of Battery Capacity to Alberta Grid

May 19, 2022
56
Customer Demand Pushes U.S. Utilities Toward Solar, Energy Services

Power Sector Giants Promote ‘Fair, Just Transition to Net-Zero’

May 19, 2022
51
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Haiyan

Fossils Liable For Human Rights Violations in Landmark Ruling by Philippines Commission

May 19, 2022
34
Food and Fashion Sectors Lead Widening Spread of Climate Careers

Food and Fashion Sectors Lead Widening Spread of Climate Careers

May 19, 2022
29
Next Post
‘Climate is the Winner’ as German Election Points to Three-Party Coalition

Germany’s G7 Presidency Could Produce ‘Grand Bargain’ on Climate, Global Health

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications

2022 ONTARIO GENERAL ELECTION

KEEP UP WITH ONTARIO’S CLIMATE CHANGE ELECTION

election-checkmark
Get Election Notifications
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST

2022 Ontario General Election

Keep up with Ontario’s Climate Change Election

election-checkmark
GET THE NEWS THAT MATTERS MOST
The Energy Mix - The climate news you need

Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?