China promotes green consumption amid decarbonization drive

BEIJING -- Chinese authorities on Friday unveiled a master plan on boosting the green transformation of consumption in key areas, the latest move for the country to achieve its carbon peak and neutrality goals.

The plan, jointly released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and six other government organs, said that green consumption modes will prevail by 2025, calling for efforts to arouse people's awareness of green consumption, curb extravagance and waste, and enhance the market share of green and low-carbon products.

"China's green consumption is yet to be stimulated," NDRC official Chang Tiewei told a press conference. He noted the importance of green consumption in spurring the low-carbon transition on the supply side, improving the attractiveness of China as a super-large market, and shoring up high-quality development.

The plan detailed measures in various major fields, ranging from food, clothing and housing to transport, tourism and electricity.

To encourage green housing, the plan urged efforts to incorporate measures of energy saving and environmental protection while renovating old urban residential communities and rural houses.

On green transport, efforts will be made to vigorously promote the use of new-energy vehicles (NEVs), such as enhancing supporting facilities like battery charging and swapping stations, and increasing the application of NEVs in public service vehicles.

Official data shows that China's NEV sales came in at 3.52 million units last year, ranking first globally for a seventh straight year. NEV ownership in China rose to 7.84 million units in 2021, accounting for about half of the world's total.

As for shifting to green electricity consumption, the plan underlined that newly-added renewable energy and energy used as raw materials would be excluded from the cap on total energy consumption. The proportion of green electricity in residential power consumption will be raised.

As an active participant in addressing climate change, China has announced its ambition of peaking CO2 emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.

2021 is viewed as a critical year for China's decarbonization efforts. The country released a top-level design document for peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality and an action plan for peaking carbon emissions by 2030, both of which outlined specific measures on boosting green consumption.