China’s Gigantic New Commitment to Renewable Energy, Explained

Late Tuesday night, the U.S. and China announced an historic agreement to combat climate change, a major step forward from the world’s two largest greenhouse gas emitters.  Not only does the agreement hold the two nations to taking additional steps to bring down the carbon emissions that drive climate change, but China just pledged to deploy a tremendous amount of clean energy.

“The non-fossil target may be the most important part of the package,” said Melanie Hart, Director of China Policy at the Center for American Progress.  “Renewable and nuclear energy accounted for 9.8 percent of China’s energy mix in 2013.  They have just promised to double that percentage by 2030.  That target will light a fire under China’s already-aggressive renewable deployments and put even stronger limits on coal and other fossil fuels.”

The country’s current five-year energy plan set forth the goal of reaching 11.4 percent renewables by 2015, and considering the fact that China should have passed the 10 percent mark by 2013, Hart said it’s not entirely certain that target will be met. Nevertheless, the government elected to ramp up its commitment to clean energy with this new agreement, rather than water it down.  “Chinese leaders have decided they can’t continue on their current path,” Hart said.  “If change hurts, so be it.  They just cannot afford to slow down.”

As for signs that the ambitious new target can be achieved, one only need to look to the agreement itself, said David Sandalow, senior fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University and former senior official at the U.S. Department of Energy. “The Chinese government does not make international pledges without a high degree of confidence that those pledges can be achieved,” he said via email.  “The next Five-Year Plan will likely include specific policies including interim goals, tax incentives and more.”

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