China must expand renewable energy faster to reach climate goals and maintain economic growth, analysts say
- China has set a goal for total wind and solar power capacity to reach 1,200GW by 2030, almost double the 635GW capacity in place at the end of last year
- However, Hong Kong’s WaterRock and Helsinki-based CREA say total installed solar and wind capacity must be much higher
China will need to raise its 2030 renewable energy expansion targets if it wants to reach its goal of sourcing a quarter of its energy demand from non-fossil-fuel sources and to stay on track for its carbon-neutrality goal, climate analysts said.
This will be especially important if Beijing wants to maintain the country’s economic growth trajectory, they added.
According to Lauri Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), China will need around 1,700GW of wind and solar capacity, over 40 per cent more than the planned 1,200GW, just to hit its target of 25 per cent non-fossil-fuel energy in 2030.
“This will only be sufficient for getting on track to carbon neutrality, if energy demand growth slows down significantly from the rate seen in the past few years,” he said. “However, if China returns to the energy-intensive growth of the past years, even more clean energy will be needed to both cover the growth in demand and to start displacing existing coal use.”
