China’s energy demand has reached peak levels and is set to fall in coming years, an influential government think tank has claimed.
The study, by the China Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), offers an optimistic view on Chinese efforts to combat climate change.
The research claims China’s total energy consumption is expected to fall to the equivalent of 4 billion tonnes of standard coal in 2020, which would represent a decline of 8% from last year.
Consumption would then go down to 3.74 billion tonnes in 2030 and 3 billion tonnes by 2050, the study said.
Qiang Liu, director of CASS’s Institute of Quantitative and Technical Economics, said: “(Peak demand) could be this year or next year – this is a gradual process and isn’t just coming down suddenly from a very pronounced summit.”
The CASS study suggests Beijing is cutting coal use far faster than expected, and comes weeks after US President Donald Trump decided to quit the Paris agreement on climate change and reaffirmed his commitment to revive US fossil fuels.
It also indicates China could reach its pledge to bring climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions to a peak by “around 2030” earlier than expected, given that the energy sector is estimated to account for 70-80 percent of its CO2 emissions.
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