At the Climate Summit hosted by US President Joe Biden on April 22, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China, which has more than half of the world’s total coal-fired power plants, would start to phase down coal consumption from the 2026 to 2030 period. Xi Jinping said, “China will strictly control coal-fired power generation projects, and strictly limit the increase in coal consumption over the 14th Five-Year Plan [2021 to 2025], and phase it down in the 15th Five-Year plan [2026 to 2030].”An article (April 22) in the South China Morning Post said that in an apparent reference to the international scepticism, Xi Jinping said China would deliver on its promise even though the task was “extremely challenging”. The South China Morning Post article explained that climate diplomacy has become an important part of China’s foreign policy to push for multilateralism and enhance its leadership role in the world. Secondly, "pursuing a low-carbon economy is in China’s own best interests as Xi Jinping has announced that the country has entered an era in which it will pursue quality growth through boosting technological innovation and domestic consumption. A transition to a green economy is an integral part of the plan". He Jiankun, a top government adviser on climate change, cited official estimates that for China to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, its total investment would need to amount to 100 trillion yuan (US$15 trillion) to 2050, averaging 33 trillion yuan per decade and 3.3 trillion yuan per year. Chinese officials have indicated that they will release detailed sector-specific and region-specific plans in the run-up to the annual UN climate conference in Glasgow known as COP26.
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