Guangzhou (JLC), March 9, 2022--Chinese President Xi Jinping made some remarks on the country's carbon emission targets during the Two Sessions in Beijing on March 5, emphasizing proper measures to accomplish these targets.
"To achieve the double carbon goals (carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060) is an extensive and profound change, also a long-term task. We should not only be firm (in emission reduction), but also promote it in a scientific and orderly manner,” Xi Jinping said, “This matter should be considered as a whole according to the national layout, and the double carbon goals should be viewed from a national perspective. It should be measured from a national perspective regarding where to reduce (a certain industry), where to remove (a certain industry), where to retain (a certain industry), and even where to increase (a certain industry) as a measure to secure energy supply."
"We should neither be in too much haste nor be slow in action. We should go about things steadily and surely."
"The green transformation is a process, not something that we can accomplish at one stroke. We should build something new before destroying something old, instead of destroying something old before building something new. China is rich in coal, poor in oil and gas, and it is difficult to fundamentally change the energy structure dominated by coal in the short term. To achieve the double carbon goals, we must base ourselves on national conditions and make steady and gradual progress. We must not be divorced from reality, be eager for success, engage in drastic carbon reduction and step on the 'emergency brake'. We can't throw away the utensils with which we eat before finding new ones. We should not only have a green and clean environment, but also ensure the normal progress of our production and life."
These remarks were made after some local governments took drastic and unrealistic measures in 2021 to achieve the emission goals, such as setting more than necessary barriers to new projects, moving fast away from coal, suspending the construction of projects that had been invested heavily in and that were still required and even stopping approving new projects that were not to consume new energy. The central government criticized such practices on July 30, 2021 and required local governments to rectify them.
Such drastic measures were a very important reason for coal and diesel shortages that popped up in late September 2021 and the shortages have been a lesson for the country.
