The Chinese government has pledged to reduce pollution from automobiles, but even the world’s largest national electric car industry may be developing too slowly. According to a report issued this month by Greenpeace, China’s automotive industry is falling short of the country’s goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2060, Bloomberg reports.
According to existing rules, in China, carbon emissions will peak in 2027 at 1.75 billion tons and then decline by 11% by 2035. According to Greenpeace, however, to meet the 2060 carbon neutrality objective, pollution levels will need to drop by at least 20%.
To accomplish this, by the end of the decade, 63% of total automobile sales in China would have to be zero-emission, rising to 87% by 2035. This is greater than the nation’s existing goal of having 40% of new cars be electric or operate on renewable energy (including biogas) by 2030, with EVs being “mainstream” by 2035.
According to Greenpeace, Chinese car manufacturers should totally phase out internal combustion engines by 2030.
Anytime later than 2030, according to Bao Hang, a project leader at Greenpeace East Asia’s Beijing office, will not be adequate to reach the Paris Agreement’s stretch goal of reducing global warming to 1.5°C. He added that Chinese automakers are lagging behind.
According to the Greenpeace report, just two international businesses have established precise objectives for their percentage of EV sales in China by 2030, and both fall short of the 2060 net-zero goal. By the end of the decade, Volkswagen wants 50% of all purchases to be electric vehicles, while Honda wants 40% of purchases to be electric or fuel-cell vehicles. None of China’s big automakers has established a quantifiable goal for zero-emission vehicles by 2030.
China’s mobility industry is responsible for 7% of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Although this is lower than in most other nations, China’s difficulty is that its automobile market is rising at a far faster rate. In China, there are around 180 cars per 1,000 inhabitants, compared to about 600 in the European Union. China will have 500 million more automobiles by mid-century if it achieves the same pace of motorization as the EU.