In September 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to peak China’s carbon emissions “before 2030” and archive carbon neutrality “before 2060” in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

The Center for Sustainable Development at the University of Maryland has made a preliminary assessment of the benefits, opportunities, and main strategies for achieving such an ambitious carbon neutrality goal, based on findings of Energy Foundation China’s flagship study on China’s long-term strategy and pathway for deep decarbonization. The report finds that China’s pledge of carbon neutrality by 2060 will generate major and sustained benefits, including reduced air pollution for people’s health, economic leadership in new technologies, and an improved global environment. It is also a critical contribution to catalyze increased international climate ambition. The report proposes a combination of five measures that can help china achieve its net-zero pledge: sustainable demand, decarbonizing electricity, electrification, fuel switching, and approaches to achieve negative emissions. In implementing these five strategies to get to net zero, early action will be critical, the report says.