China’s Big 5 power producers face uphill battle in meeting peak emissions targets

摘要

China’s five largest independent power producers, or IPPs, who account for around 44% of the country’s power generation capacity, have set ambitious targets to peak carbon emissions by 2025 or earlier, but face several obstacles in reaching this lofty goal. While they need to maintain energy supply to support economic growth, the utilities also lack a dedicated roadmap for coal plant decommissioning, face high costs of renewable capacity additions and a nascent carbon trading market. China’s power producers will be key to the national target of peak carbon emissions by 2030, pledged by President Xi Jinping in his speech at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2020. Power utilities in Japan are already setting net zero targets for 2050, and Chinese IPPs may have to follow suit if Beijing’s net zero 2060 objective is to be met.