China publishes an action plan for the emissions peak in 2026–2030. Target: minus 17% CO₂ intensity

The State Council of China published on 9 July 2026 an action plan for the emissions peak for the period of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030). According to the English version published on the government portal, the document envisages cutting CO₂ emissions per unit of GDP by 17% relative to the 2025 level and reaching a 25% share of non-fossil fuels in energy consumption in 2030.

Core targets

The plan maintains two pillars of climate policy: a CO₂ emissions peak before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060. The intermediate indicators are the aforementioned 17% reduction in emission intensity and 25% non-fossil energy. In the official English text we found no numerical targets for waste or bioenergy.

What is missing from the English version

Summaries in external media attributed additional elements to the document, such as building about 100 national zero-emission industrial parks and 500 zero-emission factories, or extending the ETS to petrochemicals and the chemical industry. In the published English text the plan calls for accelerating the construction of "zero-carbon parks and zero-carbon factories", but without the figures (100 and 500), and there is no mention in it of extending the ETS to specific sectors. The plan also does not mention hydrogen, methane, biogas or waste; it refers to "using the circular economy to reduce emissions" and to "improving price and market mechanisms", without figures.

What follows for the industry

The plan covers, among other things, adjusting the energy structure, green and low-carbon industrial development, the transformation of key sectors (buildings, public institutions, transport), strengthening ecosystem carbon sinks and policy instruments. It announces "vigorous development" of non-fossil energy and "clean substitution" of coal consumption. Because bioenergy, waste and methane do not appear in the English text, it is not known on this basis whether and how they will be included in sectoral plans.

Relationship to earlier documents

The implementing plan refers to the 15th Five-Year Plan approved on 12 March 2026, which also gave a 17% target for reducing carbon intensity. The Chinese climate model therefore remains based on intensity targets over a five-year period, supplemented by a target for 2035 (a net emission reduction of 7–10% from the peak, announced by Xi Jinping in 2025).

What this means for Poland and Europe

For the EU it matters that China maintains the goal of an emissions peak before 2030 and neutrality before 2060. The document contains no sectoral targets for biogas or hydrogen.