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Business of climate change
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The world’s energy use can be fully renewable by 2050 if China goes above and beyond its promise. Here’s why

  • Renewable energy will dominate the future, putting the world technologically and economically in the position by 2050 to get rid of fossil fuels entirely, researchers say
  • For the world to meet the 2050 energy target, China will have to deliver on its pledge a decade earlier, analysts said

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Sheep grazing between solar panels on a hillside at Huangjiao village in Baoding in China’s northern Hebei provinc on October 23, 2021. Photo: AFP.
Yujie Xue

The world can attain a 100-per cent renewable energy system by 2050 if China delivers more than its promises and makes a faster transition away from fossil fuels, according to researchers.

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Renewable energy sources such as solar panels and wind turbines will dominate the energy system of the future, putting the world technologically and economically in the position by 2050 to get rid of fossil fuels entirely, according to a July 25 paper published by the Institute of Electrical Engineers (IEEE) in New York.

“According to the United Nations, over 160 firms with US$70 trillion in assets are committed to decarbonise the global economy, which means phasing out fossil fuels, by 2050, said Sven Teske, associate professor at the University of Technology Sydney and one of the authors of the report. “Our research has shown that we have the technology to implement a global energy supply based entirely on renewable energy.”

All eyes will be on China, the world’s largest user of fossil fuels and the largest emitter of carbon dioxide on the planet. The Chinese president Xi Jinping made a surprise pledge at the United Nations in September 2020 for the world’s second-largest economy to reach carbon neutrality by 2060, where renewable energy sources make up 80 per cent of the nation’s energy mix, according to Xi’s detailed plan a year later.

For the world to meet the 100 per cent renewable energy target by 2050, China will have to deliver on its pledge a decade earlier, researchers said. That challenging goal may have been made more onerous this week, after Beijing suspended cooperation with the United States on climate change in response to Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
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“At present, we see no real chance of Beijing targeting 100 per cent renewables by 2050 – and without that target, it is unlikely China could reach that milestone by market forces alone,” said Cory Combs, senior analyst at Beijing-based consultancy Trivium China. “The difference between an 80 per cent renewable grid and a 100 per cent renewable grid is monumental, and China’s energy and industrial systems require immense reforms just to reach the former, let alone the latter.”

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