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China pledges to further develop renewable energy amid global energy shock
CGTN
Wind turbines along the coast of Mulan Bay, Wenchang City, in south China's Hainan Province, July 20, 2022. /CFP

Wind turbines along the coast of Mulan Bay, Wenchang City, in south China's Hainan Province, July 20, 2022. /CFP

China will continue increasing the proportion of non-fossil electricity consumption despite the current global energy shock, as the country marches closer toward its carbon neutrality goals, officials said on Wednesday. 

Zhang Jianhua, head of National Energy Administration (NEA), said China's ongoing development of non-fossil energy was unabated by the tight global energy supply last year, even when a number of European countries had restarted their coal-fired power plants. 

The proportion of coal consumption in the country dropped from 65.8 percent in 2014 to 56 percent in 2021. The average annual decline of 1.4 percentage points was the fastest in history, said Zhang.

He added that the proportion of clean-energy consumption rose from 16.9 percent to 25.5 percent over the same period, accounting for more than 60 percent of the increase in total energy consumption.

"From now to 2030, we anticipate the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption to keep growing at an average rate of 1 percentage point per year, and we are able and confident to attain the goal of carbon dioxide emissions peak by 2030," said Zhang.

China has set a goal of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

The country is on track to gradually reduce the consumption of fossil fuels while ensuring energy security, said Zhang.

He added that wind power and photovoltaics are China's fastest-growing renewable energy sources, making up for a large proportion of the supply of new energy.

Meanwhile, Li Chuangjun, director of the NEA's New Energy and Renewable Energy Sources Department, said the global trend of green energy and low-carbon transition will remain unchanged despite the ongoing Ukraine crisis. 

China's exports of photovoltaic products reached $25.9 billion in the first half of 2022, an increase of 113.1 percent compared with the same period in 2021, said Li. 

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