China achieves decline in carbon emissions, study says
China has been installing new energy facilities far faster than anywhere else in the world, and the investment is starting to pay off. A study released Thursday found that the country's carbon emissions edged down 1 percent in the first six months of 2025 compared to a year earlier, extending a trend that began in March 2024, CGTN reports.
Emissions from the power sector, the top source of greenhouse gases in China, fell 3 percent during the six-month period, according to the study.
Associated Press said China's carbon emissions "may have peaked" and the time is well ahead of a government target of doing so before 2030.
China's emissions have fallen before during economic slowdowns. What's different this time is electricity demand is growing – up 3.7 percent in the first half of this year – but the increase in power from solar, wind and nuclear has easily outpaced that, according to Lauri Myllyvirta, the Finland-based author of the study published on the UK-based Carbon Brief website.
We're talking really for the first time about a structural declining trend in China's emissions, he said.
China installed 212 gigawatts of solar capacity in the first six months of the year, more than America's entire capacity of 178 gigawatts as of the end of 2024, the study said. Electricity from solar has overtaken hydropower in China and is poised to surpass wind this year to become the country's largest source of clean energy. Some 51 gigawatts of wind power was added from January to June this year.
But more work needs to be done. For China to reach its declared goal of carbon neutrality by 2060, emissions would need to fall 3 percent on average over the next 35 years, said Myllyvirta, lead analyst at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
China needs to get to that 3 percent territory as soon as possible, he said.
Earlier, it was reported Chinese scientists develop a high-efficiency material for organic solar cells.
