Decarbonizing the energy system plays a critical role in the drive toward China’s sustainable development and carbon neutrality. But there is a long way to go. The challenge is to deeply decarbonize China’s power system while maintaining its reliability in meeting the country’s still-growing energy needs. Energy system decarbonization requires the development of renewable energy, accelerating the movement away from coal power, and improving the flexibility of the power system.

The industry, buildings and transportation sectors will play a significant role in this process. Industrial green transformation will require improving the energy efficiency of industrial products and processes, optimizing the industrial structure in manufacturing, and promoting zero-carbon industrial pilots. The buildings industry needs to speed up implementation of mandatory ultra-low energy building and zero-carbon building standards, promote high-efficiency energy-saving appliances and facilities, and control the total number of buildings while extending their usage lifespan. The transportation sector needs to increase green and low-carbon city planning, reduce the demand for motor vehicle travel, and develop low-carbon standards and hydrogen options for heavy vehicles.  

Drawing on iGDP’s in-house policy tracker and energy database, our energy modeling team develops analytical tools  to identify the most economically efficient pathways for China’s energy system transition. iGDP has also worked on the just transition away from coal in Shanxi’s energy restructuring and energy financing.