China Lifts Green Push With Plan to Double Clean Energy by 2035

(Bloomberg) -- China will seek to double its supply of non-fossil fuel energy by 2035, in a plan that analysts see as a boost to Beijing’s green targets. 

The country will “significantly increase” the supply of non-fossil energy by 2030 and double it by 2035 compared with 2025 levels, Wang Changlin, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at a briefing on Friday. A massive hydropower project in Tibet and desert-based renewable hubs will help propel clean-energy generation, he said.

Wang’s comments clarify the meaning of a 10-year action plan to double non-fossil energy that was first flagged last month in the 15th five-year plan. That mention was brief, though, and several details were unclear, including when the start and end dates were, and whether the doubling referred to capacity or generation.

Doubling clean energy consumption over a decade is likely a more ambitious target that China’s previous goals of having non-fossil energy comprise 25% of total consumption by 2025 and 30% by 2035.

If total energy demand grows around 2.5% a year, then doubling consumption would lead to a 29% non-fossil energy share by 2029, according to  Lauri Myllyvirta and Belinda Schäpe, analysts from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air. 

“If this means doubling total use of non-fossil energy from 2025 to 2035, it could be significantly more ambitious than China’s existing targets,” the analysts said in a March 6 note after the five-year plan’s publication.

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