A recently published paper authored by the London School of Economics on the journal Climate Policy suggests China’s massive carbon emissions previously registered may have been the peak of the pollution. China’s carbon dioxide emissions appeared to go downhill since the 2014 emission’s peak, said the report published Monday.
The paper states how a changing economic and energy landscape in China could lead to an emissions peak as far as 2025. For the past few years, China has been one of the world’s leading carbon dioxide emitter due to its increased amount of fabrics releasing harmful gases into the atmosphere.
However, in order to lay down the path and add any finishing touches on its next five-year economic plan, the Chinese government has started current meetings in Beijing for the National People’s Congress. It’s worth remembering that President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to control greenhouse gas emissions in both countries as they shook hands in November 2014.
Environmental plans for the future
This is a huge deal considering that China agreed to put a peak on its growing carbon dioxide emissions by the year 2030. Nevertheless, it seems as if the goal set up for the next 13 years is a bit too easy to accomplish, given that the recent study developed by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and Environment a the London School of Economics and Political Science says the peak happened already about two years ago.
“It is quite possible that emissions will fall modestly from now on, implying that 2014 was the peak,” writes Fergus Green and Nicholas Sterns in the paper published in the journal Climate Policy. “If emissions do grow above 2014 levels… that growth trajectory is likely to be relatively flat, and a peak would still be highly likely by 2025.”
Remarkably for China, it has done everything in its power to reduce the amount of pollution in the air as it has been adding vast amounts of renewable power capacity to its energy systems. For instance, 22 gigawatts of hydroelectric capacity were built in the year 2014 alone, including 21 gigawatts of wind power, 11 gigawatts of solar and even 5 gigawatts of nuclear power, according to the China Electricity Council.
Source: London School of Economics