Wuhan, a mega-city that has pioneered green growth strategies, has issued a Carbon Emissions Peaking Action Plan (2017-2022) with a quantified emissions cap—the first of its kind for a Chinese city. Wuhan’s plan sends a positive signal to peer cities and exemplifies how the 19th Party Congress' call for "ecological civilization" is quickly translating into local action.

The detailed plan sets a quantified target for peak carbon emissions by 2022 and sets emissions targets for key sectors (industry, buildings, transportation, and energy) and districts. It holds city departments and district governments accountable by adding carbon as a key indicator to evaluate future governance performance in the city.

An industrial city with high energy intensity, Wuhan is representative of large Chinese cities facing common economic, energy, and industrial transformation challenges. Wuhan’s action plan will serve as a template for other cities and motivate them to follow suit—especially the 23 that also have joined China’s Alliance of Peaking Pioneer Cities, and the other 87 national low-carbon development pilot cities and provinces.

Energy Foundation China (EF China) signed an MOU with Wuhan in 2015 and supported the development of the plan. Analysis from our grantees and partners—including Rocky Mountain Institute, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Innovative Green Development Program, Natural Resources Defense Council, Wuhan Energy Saving Supervision Center, Wuhan University, and Huazhong University of Science and Technology—provided sound evidence to inform the plan.

Moving forward, EF China is collaborating with grantees and partners to help Wuhan develop sectoral plans to guide the implementation. Together with the International Support Platform for City Emission Peaking, a platform with 11 international NGOs led by EF China, we are supporting several other cities to develop their peaking action plans, and are organizing peer-learning activities to inspire many more cities across China to take similar action.