China, the world’s biggest producer of greenhouse gases, has said it will cut its carbon dioxide emissions to nearly zero by 2060, in a surprise move announced at the virtual UN General Assembly in New York, reported the Financial Times.
President Xi Jinping told the UN meeting that China planned to be “carbon neutral” before 2060, adding that the coronavirus pandemic had showed the world needed a “revolution” that would speed up “green development”.
“The human race cannot ignore the warnings of nature over and over again,” he said, adding that the 2015 Paris climate agreement was the “minimum” that was needed to protect the earth.
The new target will require a radical reshaping of the world’s second-largest economy, and could push coal demand in China — which accounts for half the world’s consumption of the fuel — to close to zero.