China’s car industry is falling short of its ‘zero net’ targets: Greenpeace | Automotive industry

The environmental group says China needs to reduce emissions by at least 20 percent by 2035 to achieve a net zero by 2060.

China’s huge car sector is on track to bring carbon dioxide emissions that will warm the climate by 2027 to a peak, but with current trends, the country is unlikely to meet them. A “net zero” goal for 2060, said the Greenpeace environmental group.

The sector’s total carbon emissions are likely to rise to 1.750 billion tonnes, and will steadily fall by 11 per cent by 2035, Greenpeace estimated in a report on Tuesday.

But it will need to reduce emissions by at least 20 percent by 2035 if it wants to continue on the path to zero net by 2060, Greenpeace said.

China needs to bring its zero-emission vehicle sales to 63 percent by 2030 and 87 percent by 2035 to meet its targets, the environmental group estimates.

“The perfect response is for Chinese carmakers to completely eliminate internal combustion engine vehicles by 2030,” said Bao Hang, head of the Beijing Greenpeace Asia project in Beijing.

“Main” electric vehicles

China said that in a 2021-2035 development plan for the sector, empty electric vehicles should account for 20 percent of sales by 2025 and then become “dominant” by 2035.

The country’s cabinet said in an action plan to take emissions to the top last year that total sales of new and clean energy vehicles should reach 40 percent of the total by 2030.

Sales of battery-powered electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid gasoline-powered and hydrogen-fuel cell vehicles grew 157.5 percent in 2021 to 3.52 million units, according to official data.