China has laid a solid foundation for fulfilling its pledge to halt the rise in carbon dioxide emissions by around 2030, the country’s special representative for climate change affairs said on Monday.

Xie Zhenhua said by 2017, China’s carbon intensity, or the amount of carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP, had dropped about 46 per cent from 2005 levels.

Xie said at a news conference that 2005 levels met the target of a 40 per cent to 45 per cent drop by 2020.

“The share of renewable energy in China’s primary energy consumption stood at 13.8 per cent at the end of 2017.

“Although there is still some distance from the goal of 15 per cent, the target will definitely be met by 2020.

“By the end of last year, China had raised the forest stock volume by 2.1 billion cubic meters from the 2005 level, meeting the goal of a 1.3-billion-cubic-meter increase by 2020,’’ Xie added.

According to him, with these goals met, a very solid foundation has been laid for meeting the target of halting the increase of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030, and even accomplishing that sooner than planned.

“China will remain steadfast and active in addressing climate change and implementing the Paris Agreement,’’ he stressed.

He made the remarks before the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Katowice, Poland in December.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Paris Agreement deals with reducing greenhouse emissions, adaptation and finance. (Xinhua/NAN)

– Nov. 26, 2018 @ 14:12 GMT |