China to cap rising emissions by 2030 in boost to Paris deal

In a big leap towards ensuring a climate deal in Paris this winter, the world’s biggest carbon dioxide emitter China on Tuesday submitted a comprehensive action plan to check its rising carbon flow into atmosphere including peaking of its emissions by 2030.

Updated on: Jul 1, 2015, 24:47:38 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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In a big leap towards ensuring a climate deal in Paris this winter, the world’s biggest carbon dioxide emitter China on Tuesday submitted a comprehensive action plan to check its rising carbon flow into atmosphere including peaking of its emissions by 2030.

Beijing-s-anticipated-contribution-to-a-roster-of-carbon-curbing-pledges-was-announced-by-PM-Li-Keqiang-L-when-he-met-French-President-Francois-Hollande-in-Paris-on-Tuesday-REUTERS-Photo

Apart from peaking year, China in its plan to the United Nations also said that it will lower its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65% from the 2005 levels and will increase share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption by around 20% by 2030.

In addition to this, China has also submitted a 15-point climate policy charter that includes limiting the use of coal, ushering low carbon economy and promoting a domestic carbon trading market.

However, China has also made it clear that reaching a deal in Paris would depend on the rich nations providing $100 billion in climate finance, easy technology transfer to the developing world and enhancement of their commitment to reduce emissions.

China’s action plan called intended nationally determined action (INDC) would put pressure on India to declare its plan to fight climate change. As of now, India proposed to submit its INDCs, which would include PM Narendra Modi’s ambitious plan to install capacity to generate 175 Gegawatts of renewable energy by 2020.

India may not declare a year when its carbon dioxide emissions would be maximum called peaking year. The reason is that such a move would put India at par with China on the global climate debate.

India’s overall as well as per capita carbon emissions are much less than that of China’s and is fourth biggest emitter after China, US and Europe.

Both US and Europe had submitted their INDCs in March this year. While, the US has committed to reduce its emissions by 26-28% of 2005 level by 2030, EU has promised to cut its emissions by 40% of 1990 level.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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