China adopts energy law to 'promote carbon neutrality'

Beijing has pledged to hold carbon dioxide emissions to a peak by the end of the decade and bring them to net zero by 2060.

As countries around the world meet next week for COP29 in Baku (Azerbaijan), China adopted a new energy law on Friday, November 8 with a view to “promote (…) carbon neutrality”state media reported. The legislation contains sections on energy planning, development and use, state news agency Xinhua said, without giving further details.

China is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases that scientists say are causing global warming. But it is also a global leader in clean energy, building nearly twice as much wind and solar capacity as all other countries combined.

The country has pledged to hold carbon dioxide emissions to a peak by the end of the decade and bring them to net zero by 2060.

Copernicus, the European Union's climate observatory, said this week that 2024 will almost certainly be the hottest year on record, with warming more than 1.5°C above the pre-industrial average. . Under the Paris climate agreement, adopted in 2015, countries committed to keeping the planet's average temperature no more than 2°C above pre-industrial levels, or even 1.5°C.