Can China Reduce Emissions by 30% by 2035? - with Belinda Schäpe of CREA

Environment China

According to a recent report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), by sustaining its current expansion rate of renewable energy, China could cut 30% of power sector emissions & increase non-fossil energy share to over 40%. This would require renewable capacity of 5,000 GW by 2035 (roughly 3x current renewable capacity, or 4x current wind and solar capacity) and halting approvals of all new unabated coal power plants. CREA's report argues these goals can only be achieved through robust national targets, such as through the forthcoming Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) targets.

In this podcast, we speak with CREA's Belinda Schäpe about the details of this analysis, which was reported on in detail in Reuters, Bloomberg, and AFP.

Belinda is a China Policy Analyst with the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) where she analysis China's decarbonisation journey and advises policymakers on their diplomatic engagement with China. Previously, Belinda worked on climate diplomacy with China at the climate change think tank E3G, at the European Commission, Dialogue Earth, and a number of organisation working on economic cooperation between Europe and China. Belinda holds a double master’s degree in International Affairs from the London School of Economics and Peking University and a bachelor’s degree in Chinese Studies and Business Administration from Tübingen University.

The full report from CREA is available here:

https://energyandcleanair.org/publication/chinas-clean-energy-trends-could-cut-emissions-by-30-in-2035-if-sustained/