Beijing – At the opening of two sessions in Beijing on Thursday, China submitted the 2026 Government Work Report and a draft outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026 – 2030) to its top legislature for review. Greenpeace reviewed the climate and energy sections of the documents.
Yao Zhe, Beijing-based Global Policy Advisor at Greenpeace East Asia (she/her), said:
“The 15th Five-Year Plan sets a carbon intensity reduction target of 17%. At the same time, it ends a long tradition of setting a binding target for reducing energy intensity, which saw significant challenges to achieve in the past five years.
“This shift aligns with the government’s broader plan to transition from ‘energy dual control’ to ‘carbon dual control’. This means that domestic climate efforts will be planned and evaluated based on their implications for carbon emissions, rather than energy consumption.
“In practice, however, energy and carbon intensity remain interlinked. Energy consumption remains high and growing while China continues to be a manufacturing powerhouse. Achieving the 17% target largely hinges on the extent to which renewables replace new and existing fossil fuel needs.
“Besides the intensity target, the other half of the ‘dual control’ – arguably the more important half – namely controlling absolute carbon emissions, is still in development. The 15th five-year cycle is a critical time window to ensure the necessary measures are put in place.”
ENDS
For media enquiries please contact:
Qilin Liu, Greenpeace East Asia, Beijing, ([email protected])
Greenpeace International Press Desk, [email protected], +31 20 718 2470 (24 hours)
