⁍ Chinese leaders will discuss ambitious new measures to tackle climate change.

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⁍ Xi Jinping pledged to make the country ‘carbon neutral’ by 2060.

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⁍ Experts say China needs to bring the share of coal in its total energy mix from 58% last year to less than 50% by 2025.

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– In September, Chinese President Xi Jinping told the United Nations that his country would become a “carbon neutral” nation by 2060. On Monday, China’s leaders will meet to discuss the country’s new five-year national development plan, which was supposed to be completed by April. Reuters reports that policymakers are under pressure to include radical climate targets in the new 2021-2025 “five-year plan,” with the COVID-hit economy weighing on their decisions. Before September, few expected China to promise more ambitious curbs on climate-warming greenhouse gases over the next five years, with policy documents signalling Beijing’s intent to make energy security and the economy its top priorities. It was also expected to go on a new coal-fired power construction spree, but government scholars have been forced to revise their old drafts. The understanding is that there is no time to waste if China is to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Experts say China needs to bring the share of coal in its total energy mix from 58% last year to less than 50% by 2025, and provide enhanced support for technology like carbon capture. It could start by setting an absolute emissions cap for the first time, said Zou Ji, head of the Energy Foundation China, which has been involved in five-year plan research. “Our recommendation is to establish a target to control total carbon emissions (by 2025),” he said at a conference last week.