By Mathew Carr

Jan. 26, 2021 — LONDON: China continues to slowly turn the screws on greenhouse gas, saying Shanghai is to peak its emissions before 2025, according to China Daily.

Having the city begin cutting emissions soonish indicates the most populous country is looking closely at what it can do as nations are meant to be boosting the ambition of their climate targets before the Glasgow UNFCCC talks in November.

It comes as John Kerry, special U.S. climate envoy asks China to try to reach net zero by 2050 instead of 2060. The U.S. has only 4% of the world’s population yet has the most historical responsibility for climate change.

China and U.S. are seen cooperating on climate action, yet tensions apparently remain: http://carrzee.org/2021/01/24/while-trumps-exit-from-the-paris-climate-deal-was-reckless-chinas-net-zero-target-for-2060-is-not-soon-enough-kerry/

U.S. to limit oil and natural gas: https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/biden-oil-gas-trump-federal-land-b1792889.html

****************

Here is the full text of China Daily story on the China govt website:
http://english.mee.gov.cn/News_service/media_news/202101/t20210126_818596.shtml

Shanghai is aiming to hit its peak in carbon dioxide emission before 2025, five years ahead of the country’s timeline, according to a five-year plan being reviewed at the ongoing municipal people’s congress.

The draft of the Shanghai’s 14th-Five-Year Plan and development vision for 2035 stated that the city will push forward energy saving and emission reduction in key industries such as electricity, chemicals and steelmaking to ensure that carbon emission peaks before 2025.

By 2025, the annual amount of coal consumption in the city is expected to be under 43 million metric tons, and the ratio of coal in primary energy consumption will be reduced to around 30 percent, while the use of natural gas, which produces less greenhouse gases than carbon or oil, will be raised to 15 percent.

In the past five years, Shanghai has been developing its renewable energy sector as it seeks to increase the use of new energy to 8 percent of the city’s total electricity consumption.

Source: China Daily