A handful of snippets for the sustainable investor.
Part of the US’s return to the Paris Climate Agreement involves them putting together a ‘nationally determined contribution’, or NDC, which is a document produced by countries laying out their plan to meet the Paris goals.
While we wait for that, here is a summary of China’s most recent NDC proposal, that they updated in December. The official NDC is still the one as of September, details of which you can find here, but the December proposal we show below reflects the probable future official update.
China’s NDC for climate action has five main elements, which essentially make up their 2030 goals:
- Peaking carbon dioxide emissions ‘before 2030’ and efforts to peak early
- Lower carbon intensity by ‘over 65% in 2030’ compared to 2005 levels
- Increase share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to ‘around 25%’ in 2030
- Increase forest stock volume by around 6 billion cubic metres by 2030, up from the previous 4.5 billion cubic metres.
- Increase the installed capacity of wind and solar power to 1,200gw by 2030.
In addition, China has a long-term goal of carbon neutrality by 2060.
An outstanding question related to the wording used in China’s NDC is whether ‘carbon-neutrality’ really means only carbon, and not overall greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the biggest culprit because of the amount of it but methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and hydrofluorocarbons are also potent contributors to global warming. The non-CO2 gases emitted by China amount to more greenhouse gas than many other countries’ CO2 emissions combined. Therefore, it is seen as necessary for China to include a broader measure of greenhouse gases, beyond CO2, in order to really meet its contribution to the global Paris goals.
Sustainability digest is a weekly newsletter highlighting a handful of interesting issues facing the sustainable investor.
To the pound 