Striving to achieve carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060 is an inherent requirement for implementing the new development concept, building a new development pattern and promoting high-quality development. It is a major strategic decision made by the Party Central Committee in coordinating the domestic and international situations. It is an inevitable choice to focus on solving the outstanding problems of resource and environmental constraints and realizing the sustainable development of the Chinese nation. It is also a solemn commitment to building a community with a shared future for mankind. It is a long way to go to achieve the "double carbon" goal. We must fully, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development concept and implement the decisions and deployment of the Party Central Committee.
A strategic decision to coordinate the domestic and international situations
Looking at the world, an unprecedented economic and social change has begun. Thousands of sails are competing for development and hundreds of boats are competing for the current on the "double carbon" channel. Only those countries that truly understand the revolutionary changes and great potential under the "double carbon" goal can make steady progress in this historical process; Only those who actively follow the development trend of carbon neutrality and grasp the opportunities of green and low-carbon transformation can take the lead in development.
Looking at the developed countries since the industrial revolution, their carbon dioxide emissions have experienced a natural process of reaching the highest value in history and then changing from increase to decrease. Based on the fact that economic growth is no longer at the cost of increasing carbon emissions, carbon peak is considered as a landmark event in the process of green and low-carbon transformation of an economy.
"Achieving carbon neutrality at an early date" began with people's self-examination and self-discipline on the reality of global warming, and later became a concerted action that was valued by governments of all countries. Today, more than 130 countries and regions have committed to carbon neutrality globally.
Then turn our eyes to ourselves. In the new stage of development, in the pursuit of higher quality, more efficient, fairer, more sustainable and safer development path, promoting "double carbon" is not only in line with the world trend, but also the internal demand of our own development.
——Promoting "double carbon" is an urgent need for China to solve the outstanding problems of resource and environmental constraints and achieve sustainable development.
Natural resources are the foundation of national development, the source of ecology and the foundation of people's livelihood. Since the reform and opening up, China has achieved a remarkable growth miracle and has become the second largest economy in the world. At the same time, resource and environmental constraints are getting closer to the upper limit. In 2020, China's external dependence on oil and natural gas will rise to 73% and 43% respectively. The supply of strategic mineral products such as iron, copper, nickel and cobalt has long relied on the international market; Nearly 70% of the urban agglomerations, more than 90% of the energy bases, and 65% of the main grain producing areas have prominent water shortage problems; Improper use of resources leads to environmental pollution and ecological degradation.
On the one hand, China has a large population, a shortage of resources and a limited environmental capacity; On the other hand, the traditional extensive growth mode has encountered an unsustainable crisis. It has become a strategic choice for the modernization drive to fundamentally cross the barrier of resources and environment and take the road of ecological priority and green development.
In the long run, compared with fossil energy with extremely uneven distribution, if we can build a green low-carbon energy system based on wind, light and other renewable energy, it will greatly reduce the impact of International Geopolitics on China, improve the level of independent energy security, and have strategic significance for building a new pattern of energy development.
——Promoting "double carbon" is an urgent need for China to comply with the trend of technological progress and promote the transformation and upgrading of economic structure.
In the "double carbon" era, the world economy will get rid of its dependence on fossil energy, and the global energy landscape will face revolutionary restructuring. The prevailing wind and light on the earth have smoothed the gap between countries in natural resources. In the future, the focus of energy utilization will no longer be resource competition, but technology competition.
In fact, a new round of industrial competition has begun. The European Union proposes to complete the industrial research and development of key technologies for deep decarbonization by 2035. The United States also plans to increase research and development investment in hydrogen energy, energy storage and advanced nuclear energy. Japan has advantages in hydrogen production, storage and transportation from renewable energy, hydrogen power generation and fuel cell vehicles. Its goal is to reduce the comprehensive system cost of hydrogen energy utilization to the level of imported liquefied natural gas. The competition is far more than that. Under the tide of global low-carbon transformation, a series of innovative achievements will appear in energy, power, materials, construction, manufacturing, transportation and other fields, giving birth to new industries, new formats, new products and new services. We must catch up and strive for innovative advantages.
Changes brought about by global carbon neutralization are taking place, and low carbon will become a new standard in the industrial chain. Take apple as an example. According to the company's commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030, every link of its industrial chain, such as raw material acquisition, component production, chip manufacturing and product assembly, will be carbon neutral, which will force the whole industrial chain to form a new standard. When sustainable development becomes an international common language, Chinese enterprises can only get a "pass" by practicing their "internal skills" when they "go out".
——Promoting "double carbon" is an urgent need for our country to meet the people's growing demand for a beautiful ecological environment and promote the harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
From the perspective of development, carbon emissions and air pollutants are highly rooted and homologous. The development of green low-carbon energy and economic transformation is to effectively reduce the emission of conventional pollutants from the source. In the future, with the narrowing of the technical potential of the end pollution treatment, the source emission reduction will play a greater role in the continuous improvement of the air environment quality in key areas in China in 2035 and 2050. Therefore, promoting the "double carbon" action is also the focus of the current in-depth fight against pollution.
From the perspective of nature, natural ecosystem is an important source of carbon sink. Promoting "double carbon" will further deepen the symbiotic relationship between human and natural life communities, and enhance the carbon sink capacity of the ecosystem through ecological protection and restoration. It will bring multiple synergistic benefits such as biodiversity protection, soil improvement, and air quality purification, and realize the "good nature" of high-quality development and the harmonious coexistence between human and nature.
——Promoting "double carbon" is an urgent need for China to take the initiative to assume the responsibility of a major country and promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind.
The world today is facing great changes that have not been seen in a century. Where a country and a nation go is facing an unprecedented test. Realizing the "double carbon" goal is not only an inevitable choice for China's ecological civilization construction and high-quality economic and social development, but also reflects the responsibility of a major country that actively promotes international cooperation and makes the community of shared future for mankind stable and far-reaching.
As an important participant, contributor and leader in addressing global climate change, China has led the global negotiation process on climate change, actively promoted the signing, entry into force and implementation of the Paris Agreement, and promoted the construction of a new global climate governance system. The commitment to realize the time from carbon peak to carbon neutralization is far shorter than that of developed countries. This means that as the largest developing country in the world, China will complete the highest reduction in global carbon emission intensity, achieve the carbon peak to carbon neutralization in the shortest time in global history, and take actions to achieve this goal. So as to send a clear signal to the world that the climate problem needs to be solved urgently and that global cooperation under the framework of multilateralism is the key to solving the climate problem.
An extensive and profound economic and social change
Achieving the "double carbon" goal is a wide-ranging and profound economic and social transformation, facing unprecedented difficulties and challenges. It is not easy to achieve, and requires painstaking efforts.
First of all, unlike developed countries that have completed industrialization, China's industrialization and urbanization are still advancing in depth, the economy is still growing at a medium high speed, and energy consumption continues to maintain a rigid growth. Secondly, the transition period from carbon peaking to carbon neutralization in developed countries is nearly 40 years and 70 years, while in China it is only 30 years.
The challenge lies in the fact that China's economy and industry are biased towards coal, and its energy is biased towards coal, and its efficiency is low. The high-carbon path dependence formed over the years has a large inertia. Taking the energy structure as an example, fossil energy consumption accounts for about 85%, and coal-fired power generation accounts for about 62% of the total power generation. Looking at the industrial structure, the world recognized high carbon and difficult to reduce emissions industries, including coal, steel, petrochemical and cement, account for too high a proportion. China's steel production accounts for more than 50% of the world's total, and its cement production accounts for nearly 60% of the world's total. Even so, some places still have the impulse to blindly launch the "two highs" project.
The experience of developed countries shows that if the green energy substitution effect is not considered, the carbon emission reduction curve is closely related to the industrial structure and urbanization rate of a country. Generally speaking, when the proportion of service industry reaches about 70%, or the urbanization rate reaches about 80%, the carbon emissions start to peak and decline. Compared with the two structural characteristics of developed countries, China still has a long way to go.
The difficulties and challenges for China to achieve the "double carbon" goal cannot be ignored. At the same time, we should also realize that as a comprehensive decision-making and strategic choice with great influence, it is neither a castle in the air nor an ambitious one.
China has achieved remarkable results in carbon emission reduction, which has accumulated experience and laid a foundation for achieving the "double carbon" goal. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the guidance of the new development concept, China has unswervingly followed the path of ecological priority and green and low-carbon development, focused on promoting the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development, established and improved the green and low-carbon circular development economic system, continued to promote the adjustment of industrial structure and energy structure, launched the national carbon market transaction, announced that no new overseas coal power projects would be built, and accelerated the construction of the "double carbon" policy system.
China has great potential for developing renewable energy. Although China's energy endowment can be said to be "more coal, less oil and less gas", the abundant renewable energy should not be despised any more. The latter not only has huge reserves, but also the cost is falling rapidly. At present, the wind energy and solar energy that have been developed in China are less than one tenth of the technically exploitable amount. At the same time, there are considerable biomass energy, geothermal energy, ocean energy and solid waste energy. Technological progress, large-scale economy and industrial competition have pushed the cost of renewable energy generation down sharply in the past 10 years. In 2019, the national photovoltaic power generation cost decreased by 82% compared with 2010; The onshore wind power has been reduced by 39%, which has formed a price advantage over coal power and entered the stage of parity.
In particular, China's new energy industry has certain advantages in the world. After 40 years of catching up, China's manufacturing capacity, R & D capacity, capital investment capacity and market scale have long been different. Take the production of wind power equipment in China as an example. In the initial stage of 1997, the cost per kilowatt was as high as US $2500, far higher than that of developed countries in Europe and America; In 2010, it dropped to about 700 US dollars; After 2015, it will be further reduced to US $500, about half of that of developed countries. At present, the production capacity and market scale of China's photovoltaic industry rank first in the world, and the localization of the whole industry chain has been realized.
The advantages of the new energy industry are not only due to the manufacturing and innovation capabilities, but also due to the support of the super large domestic market. In 2019, China's installed capacity of hydropower, wind energy and solar power generation accounted for 30.1%, 28.4% and 30.9% of the world's total respectively. From 2008 to 2018, the average annual growth rate was 6.5%, 102.6% and 39.5% respectively, while the world average growth rate in the same period was only 2.5%, 46.7% and 19.1%. The above factors are conducive to forming a magnetic field effect in the world, gathering more capital and technology, and creating conditions for China to overtake in the new round of industrial competition.
It is obvious that compared with the carbon neutrality of developed countries, China also has the "late development advantage" of green development. China's industrialization and urbanization started late. The new industrial capacity and urban infrastructure demand can be realized through the development of green production capacity and green infrastructure to avoid the "lock-in effect" brought by traditional industrialization and urbanization. In addition, as the industrialization characterized by the rapid development of the heavy chemical industry is coming to an end, for example, since the beginning of the previous few years, most industries such as steel and cement have shown signs of overcapacity. The carbon emissions of the traditional manufacturing industry will gradually peak and enter the platform period, while the proportion of the advanced manufacturing industry and the modern service industry will continue to increase. The new generation of information technology and green low-carbon technology are increasingly widely used and infiltrated into various industrial fields, It will bring huge benefits from green and low-carbon transformation.
Realizing the "double carbon" goal is an inherent requirement of China's economic and social development to a certain extent. Of course, in such a broad and far-reaching green transformation, we must master the rhythm, not cause energy shortage crisis, but also keep the energy price at a relatively low level, which not only brings real convenience to the people's life, but also enables China's manufacturing industry to continue to maintain sufficient competitiveness in the world.
A hard war lasting for 40 years
The realization of the "double carbon" goal is a systematic economic and social transformation with multiple objectives and constraints. We should adhere to systematic thinking and properly handle the multi-dimensional relations between development and emission reduction, carbon reduction and security, overall and local, short-term and medium and long-term, legislation and destruction, government and market, domestic and international. It is not only a hard and protracted war that will last for 40 years, but also a major test of our party's ability to govern the country in the historical process of achieving the second centenary goal.
In order to achieve the "double carbon" goal, it is particularly necessary to give play to China's institutional advantages of concentrating efforts on major issues. The Party Central Committee has established a leading group for carbon peak and carbon neutralization work, and issued the opinions on completely, accurately and comprehensively implementing the new development concept to do a good job in carbon peak and carbon neutralization work and the action plan for carbon peak before 2030, which constitute the top-level design of the two phases of carbon peak and carbon neutralization, and become the "1" in the "1 + n" policy system. Other sub sectors and industries including energy, industry, transportation, urban and rural construction, As well as scientific and technological support, energy security, carbon sink capacity, fiscal and financial price policy, standard measurement system, supervision and assessment and other security schemes are being promoted. In accordance with the principles of national overall planning, economy first, two wheel drive, smooth internal and external flow and risk prevention, all work was carried out in an orderly manner.
Strengthening overall planning and coordination is the primary meaning. Carbon peak and carbon neutralization are an integral concept. It is impossible for a region or a unit to "fight alone". We must adhere to the principle of "the whole country playing a game of chess". We should integrate the "double carbon" work into the overall layout of ecological civilization construction and the overall situation of economic and social development, and promote the implementation of the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee. Proceeding from China's current national conditions, we will adhere to the coordinated promotion of carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion and growth, solidly promote the "top ten actions for carbon peak", adjust measures to local conditions, link up and down, and bring together a strong joint force of local governments, industries, enterprises and the public.
Promoting the energy revolution is the main front. Based on China's energy resource endowment, we should adhere to the principle of establishing first, then breaking down, and overall planning. The gradual withdrawal of traditional energy must be based on the safe and reliable replacement of new energy. We can not blindly pursue "de coal". We should speed up the construction of large-scale wind power bases and new energy supply and consumption systems; Firmly control fossil energy consumption, especially strictly and reasonably control the growth of coal consumption; Consolidate the foundation of domestic energy production, put the promotion of new and clean energy development in a more prominent position, and explore new modes of energy production and consumption; We will promote the orderly replacement of old and new energy sources, constantly improve the self-sufficiency rate of energy, and enhance the stability, security, and sustainability of energy supply.
Seize the opportunity to promote industrial optimization and upgrading. To promote low-carbon economic growth and achieve green development is a hurdle we must overcome. In this regard, we should not only continue to increase, but also gradually optimize the stock. In order to achieve greater growth, we need to promote the deep integration of emerging technologies such as the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence, and the fifth generation mobile communication (5g) with green low-carbon industries. Through the development of strategic emerging industries, we will build a green manufacturing system and a service system, and increase the proportion of green low-carbon industries in the total economic volume. To optimize the stock, great efforts should be made to promote the optimization and upgrading of traditional industries such as steel, nonferrous metals, petrochemical, chemical and building materials, and accelerate the low-carbon process innovation and digital transformation in the industrial field. We will intensify the utilization of garbage resources, vigorously develop a circular economy, and reduce the waste of energy resources.
Accelerate the green and low-carbon scientific and technological revolution. "Technology is king" is a distinctive feature of promoting "double carbon". Whoever takes the lead in scientific and technological innovation will take the lead in development. It is necessary to give better play to the advantages of the system, pay close attention to tackling key problems of green and low-carbon technologies, and accelerate the research and development, popularization and application of advanced and applicable technologies. We will strengthen innovation capacity building, establish and improve the evaluation and trading system for green and low-carbon technologies, and accelerate the transformation of innovation achievements. Innovate the talent training mode, encourage colleges and universities to speed up the construction of relevant disciplines, and let green and low-carbon development talents flow fully.
We will strengthen institutional innovation and system integration, and improve the green and low-carbon policy system. Promoting "double carbon" can not be separated from policy guarantee. We will remove the institutional obstacles that restrict green and low-carbon development and further improve the "double control" system of energy consumption. We will improve the "double carbon" standard, establish a unified and standardized carbon emission statistics and accounting system, fill up the basic weaknesses as soon as possible, and promote the transformation from "double control" of energy to "double control" of total carbon emissions and intensity. We will improve laws and regulations, improve fiscal, taxation, price, investment and financial policies, and increase support for green and low-carbon products and technologies. Give full play to the role of the market mechanism, and guide various resource elements to gather for green and low-carbon development.
Actively participate in and lead global climate governance. Addressing climate change is not the obligation of any country or region, but the common responsibility of all members of the international community. China should take the initiative to seize the current opportunity of scientific and Technological Development in the field of global climate change, and actively carry out international scientific and technological innovation cooperation in the course of opening up. Promote the development of low-carbon technology in China and its wide application in the world, enhance the soft power and voice in the world's science and technology governance system, and provide strong support for China's sustainable development and participation in global ecological governance.
"It is difficult to know, but difficult to act; it is difficult to act, but difficult to end.". In the face of the big test of the century to achieve the "double carbon" goal, cadres at all levels should firmly establish new development concepts, enhance their awareness of coping with climate change, improve their ability to grasp green and low-carbon development, fully promote the work of carbon peak and carbon neutralization, and make greater contributions to promoting high-quality development and building a modernization of harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
