China Struggles to Meet Climate Goals Amid Rising CO2 Emissions

Despite significant investments in clean energy, China's carbon emissions continue to grow, putting its 2025 climate targets at risk.

China's CO2 emissions have grown at an average of 3.8% a year between 2021 and 2023, despite efforts to boost clean energy.
The country's economy has become more carbon-intensive, particularly due to stimulus measures in construction and manufacturing.
Renewable energy production needs to increase by more than 11% annually to meet China's 2025 non-fossil energy target, currently growing at 8.5%.
China approved 114 gigawatts of coal power in 2023, contradicting pledges to control new coal power and increasing global coal emissions share to over 64%.
Efforts to reverse economic structure distortions and maintain clean energy momentum could still help China meet some of its climate goals.