Leap in renewables for a shared future

China’s plan and actions for clean energy development show it is one of the most reliable partners for other Global South countries in climate action

China has strengthened its top-level policy design for Nationally Determined Contributions under the Paris Agreement on climate change and its energy transition, driving a nationwide collective effort through innovations in policy, technology and market mechanisms. The country has achieved a series of globally recognized milestones in its renewable energy transition and is emerging as a key driving force behind the global green transformation.

China built the world’s largest and fastest-growing renewable energy system during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, with the share of installed renewable energy capacity rising from 40 percent to around 60 percent of its total installed energy capacity, according to the National Energy Administration.

China’s green and low-carbon industries have made a historic leap from being incremental supplements to becoming primary growth drivers, with new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries and wind/photovoltaic equipment manufacturing leading a deep industrial transformation globally. These industries have evolved from policy-driven emerging sectors into robust new engines powering China’s economic growth, achieving historic breakthroughs in investment scale, economic contribution and industrial competitiveness.

This sector is making an increasing and substantial contribution to the country’s economic development. According to the National Development and Reform Commission, China’s green and low-carbon industries together commanded a market of roughly 11 trillion yuan ($1.62 trillion) by 2025. In recent years, total investment in green and low-carbon sectors has become one of the fastest-growing segments in fixed-asset investment nationwide.

Innovation in green and low-carbon fields has also been exceptionally vibrant. According to the Report on Statistical Analysis of Green and Low-Carbon Patents (2025), the number of green and low-carbon patent applications published by Chinese applicants reached 120,000 in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 18.9 percent, contributing 49.2 percent to global growth. Green and low-carbon industries have become a new engine of high-quality development in China, positioning the country as a new global benchmark for innovation-led growth.

According to BloombergNEF’s annual Energy Transition Investment Trends report, global investment in the energy transition surpassed $2.3 trillion in 2025. The Global South has shown even greater commitment and demand for energy transition investments. Among them, China has played a leading role in annual investment for several years. China has also become one of the world’s largest exporters of new energy equipment and a leading provider of carbon neutral engineering technologies and solutions.

China has engaged in green cooperation with over 100 countries, helping reduce global levelized costs of wind and solar power by 60 percent and 80 percent, respectively. It is estimated that during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, exports of wind and PV products from China cumulatively helped other countries reduce emissions by approximately 4.1 billion metric tons. Through its massive domestic deployment and industrial capabilities, China has turned green technologies from luxury goods into affordable, universally accessible clean energy solutions, helping reshape the cost structure of the global energy transition.

In response to the multiple challenges of the global energy transition, China has formulated and released its plan for renewable energy development during the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period. The plan sets forth several major categories of targets on renewable energy development: a total consumption target of approximately 1.8 billion tons of standard coal equivalent by 2030; a power generation target of roughly 3,500 gigawatts of total installed renewable capacity and about 6 trillion kilowatt-hours of annual generation, with wind and solar combined exceeding 2,800 GW and generating more than 4 trillion kWh of electricity; a non-power utilization target, with the total scale of renewable energy used for non-power purposes increasing 2.5-fold by 2030 as compared to 2025, equivalent to approximately 150 million tons of standard coal. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period, more than 300 million kW of new reliable peak power capacity from renewable energy will be added, while the scale of newly commenced offshore wind power projects nationwide will reach around 100 million kW.

According to the National Energy Administration, China’s power generation mix will feature “half non-fossil, nearly half renewable and 30 percent new energy” by 2030. This ambitious blueprint is not merely a domestic development agenda but a strategic response with profound global implications. By setting such quantified and binding targets, China provides the international community with clear and credible expectations for its energy transition trajectory, thereby injecting much-needed certainty into global climate governance at a time when geopolitical turbulence and policy volatility elsewhere have raised widespread concerns.

The plan’s emphasis on reliable substitution and progressively transforming renewable energy can help address the global challenge of integrating variable renewables into secure and stable power systems. By pioneering strong capacity metrics and system-friendly standards, China is setting new benchmarks for the world on how to balance massive renewable deployment with grid reliability.

Moreover, the plan’s commitment to deepening high-level international cooperation across projects, industries, standards and certification signals China’s continued openness to global partnerships. China welcomes foreign investment and will actively share Chinese technologies, standards and successful examples — such as zero-carbon industrial parks and green power supply — with Southeast Asia, Central Asia and Africa through the Belt and Road Initiative. According to the National Energy Administration, with total investment in the renewable energy sector projected to exceed 5 trillion yuan during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, China is poised to drive R&D, equipment manufacturing and construction across the entire industrial chain, generating powerful green growth momentum that will benefit global supply chains.

Through tangible actions and achievements, China has demonstrated the commitment of a responsible major country, proving in practice that addressing climate change and pursuing sustainable development are win-win global endeavors. China’s plan and actions for renewable energy development during the 15th Five-Year Plan demonstrate that China is not only one of the largest incremental sources of the global green and low-carbon transition but also one of the most reliable partners for other Global South countries in climate action.

The author is a professor and the director of strategy and planning at the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation based in Beijing.

The author contributed this article to China Watch, a think tank powered by China Daily. The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

Contact the editor at editor@chinawatch.cn.