In 2026 to 2030, China will accelerate “the construction of a new energy system”, “the formation of green production and lifestyles,” and “the green transformation of economic and social development.”
This was laid out in a Xinhua communiqué after a key meeting of China’s top leadership, namely the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.
The meeting saw the approval of recommendations for creating the 15th Five Year Plan for national development (2026-2030).
Economic development remains China’s primary goal for the next five years, the communiqué states. It reiterates a goal first set in 2020, that per capita GDP should reach the level of “moderately developed countries” by 2035.
Liu Feng, an economist at the Central University of Finance and Economics, told 21st Century Business Herald that the communiqué reflects “the deep integration of green development with the core of economic development.”
“Green” and “new energy” appears multiple times in the full text of the recommendations published by Xinhua. For example, China should develop “smart, green, and service-oriented manufacturing” and “industrial clusters in strategic emerging fields such as new energy…” Hydrogen and nuclear fusion power are named among the “new drivers of economic growth”. China should “expand green trade” and “launch new cooperation initiatives across fields such as green development”.
The recommendations include a standalone chapter on “Accelerating the green transition across the board and building a beautiful China”. It reiterates the need to meet China’s target of peaking its carbon emissions before 2030. It calls for a “continued drop in total discharge of major pollutants”, and the steady enhancement of the “diversity, stability, and sustainability of our ecosystems.”
Energy magazine, which is affiliated with the State Council, indicates that achieving the carbon peak requires continued large-scale development of renewable energy and the building of a safer, more efficient and intelligent power and energy network nationwide. The government will also introduce more policies to promote green consumption, it added.
President Xi Jinping said that while the recommendations set “qualitative requirements” for the next five years, quantitative requirements and “specific work arrangements” will be determined when the 15th Five Year Plan is actually formulated.
The final plan is likely to be reviewed and approved in March by China’s top legislature, the National People’s Congress.
Read Dialogue Earth’s March 2021 analysis of China’s 14th Five Year Plan (2021-2025).