"Why China didn’t sign global pledge to triple renewables" 13 December 2023

China Dialogue asked experts why China, despite being a world leader in renewables, has not signed the global commitment to triple renewable power capacity and double energy efficiency by 2030. The general picture they gave is that the tripling is achievable, but the doubling is a sticking point...

Last year...energy consumption grew 2.9% on the previous year, with coal consumption going up by 4.3%. That meant energy intensity for 2022 was virtually unchanged on 2021, dropping by only 0.1%.

"China is  promoting very large-scale deployment of clean energy while doing little to curb energy demand growth..." said Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at think-tank the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA)...

Huo Yan, the world’s largest photovoltaic (PV) solar firm - LONGi’s global marketing head, said the tripling target could act as a spur to countries that had been slower to deploy renewables. For a country like China, already rapidly rolling out clean energy, it was a conservative goal, he added...

China’s rapid roll out of renewables has provided impetus to the global energy transition... At the recent Third Belt and Road Forum, the country announced a number of new decisions, including the establishment of the Green Investment and Finance Partnership, “innovative blended finance”, and better support for renewables projects in their earliest stages...

Although China’s renewables tech has reduced the cost of installing generation capacity, Cecilia Springer at Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center thinks the country could do more to transfer its experience to developing nations, helping them to build out their own manufacturing...

“I think China could do much more to safeguard local benefits, train local workforces, and help build out solar installations in those countries,” she added.