China aims to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. Officials and experts shed light on the progress made so far. Chen Yilin reports.

It's been three years since China proposed its "dual carbon goals".

Six national ministries and administrations, as well as experts, gathered together on Tuesday to discuss the progress made so far.

ZHAO CHENXIN Vice Chairman, National Development and Reform Commission "China's carbon intensity in 2020 was 48.4 percent less than that in 2005, exceeding the pledged target for the first-stage. In the first two years of the '14th Five-Year Plan', it's undergone a further 4.6 percent decrease."

Over 3-million square kilometers are now protected under a plan scheme known as the "ecological protection red line". That's according to the latest blue book, published by China's Ministry of Natural Resources.

China is also ramping up efforts in renewable energy, with the country's installed capacity of hydropower, wind power, photovoltaics and biomass power generation ranking first in the world.

HE KEBIN Academician, Chinese Academy of Engineering, Dean, Institute for Carbon Neutrality, Tsinghua University "One of the key fields to achieve the dual-carbon goal is renewable energy. In future, countries' development model will change from dependence on energy resources to energy technology. The difficulty lies in the transformation from the old energy system to the new. The goal is a challenge, but it's also a motivation for the economy."

CHEN YILIN Huzhou, Zhejiang Province "On Tuesday, China celebrated its first National Ecology Day, established to highlight the country's ongoing efforts to build an ecological civilization. Experts believe China's experiences can contribute to the rest of the world."

KADAMBOT SIDDIQUE Hackett Professor of Agriculture, Director, Western Australia Agricultural Research Institute "I think the ecological footprint is very important. Such a practice can be replicated upscaled in other developing countries, for example, Saharan Africa and various parts of Asia."

LI XUAN Senior Policy Officer and Regional OCOP Coordinator, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, FAO "I think the international society are very much impressed by Chinese progress regarding this ecological improvement. At the meantime, most of the countries in the world may not be really knowing about it. Like Financial Times mentioned about 90% of the Chinese energy coming from the coal steel, which was very out of date. This is something that we need to really let people know about China's progress."

New science bases and funds were also established at the event, aimed at raising public awareness into the need for ecological conservation.

Chen Yilin, CGTN, Huzhou, Zhejiang Province.

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