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Coal processing in Shanxi Province: Head of State Xi speaks of "tough measures"
Photo: Sam McNeil / AP
China's state and party leader Xi Jinping has promised greater efforts in the fight against the climate crisis.
His country wants to achieve climate neutrality "before 2060".
Carbon dioxide emissions should also peak "before 2030", said the President in a speech that was previously recorded on video at the general debate at the UN General Assembly in New York.
This is the first time the government in Beijing has set a date for climate neutrality.
For comparison: Germany and the entire European Union have so far set the year 2050 as the target for CO₂ neutrality.
Until the UN climate conference in November 2021, all governments are called upon to present stricter climate targets as part of the Paris climate agreement.
"More energetic measures"
Climate neutrality means that the use of fuels or human activities have no influence on the carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere and are therefore not harmful to the climate.
China will increase its intended national contributions to the Paris Agreement by taking "more vigorous measures," Xi Jinping promised.
At its virtual summit just over a week ago, the European Union (EU) urged China to achieve the goal of climate neutrality by 2050, but by 2060 at the latest.
China is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases and is responsible for around a quarter of global emissions.
In the Paris Climate Agreement, China has so far only stated that its emissions should peak "around 2030".
However, it has long been expected that the state will meet the target early (read more here).
The EU is urging China to aim for the year 2025.
China criticizes the USA
In the past, other states justified their inadequate action in the fight against climate change by saying that interventions would not be of much use as long as the People's Republic did not significantly reduce its emissions.
Now China, for its part, is going on the offensive: The leadership of the People's Republic accused the USA of "seriously obstructing" the fight against the climate crisis.
By withdrawing from international climate protection agreements, the United States missed "its duty to limit emissions" and refused to "take minimum measures to protect the earth," said a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry.
Under President Donald Trump, the US government withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement of 2015 and softened environmental regulations.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen welcomed China's announcement on climate neutrality by 2060: "This is an important step in our global fight against climate change under the Paris Agreement," she wrote on Twitter.
"We will work with China on this goal. But there is still a lot to do."
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jme / dpa / AFP