Climate change is one of the biggest challenges facing mankind in the 21st century. The Chinese Government has always attached great importance to tackling climate change and strengthened the work on low-carbon development and climate change adaptation since the beginning of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020). As an important part of the five-year plan for national economic and social development, the Work Plan for Controlling Greenhouse Gas Emissions During the 13th Five-Year Plan Period has been formulated and implemented. Regional governments formulated and decomposed greenhouse gases (GHG) controlling targets, ministries and departments implemented policies and measures, sectors and enterprises took innovative actions, and the public participated actively.
Thanks to hard work, in 2016, the carbon intensity decreased by 6.6% from the 2015 level and the proportion of non-fossil energy sources increased to 13.3%. The tasks for afforestation and forestry protection were overfulfilled, the capacity for climate change adaptation and disaster prevention and alleviation were further strengthened and the systems and mechanisms for addressing climate change were improved. The carbon market construction is underway in an orderly manner and will be officially launched in 2017.
Since 2016, China has continued the firm support of global climate governance process and been highly praised by the international community for the significant contribution to the conclusion and rapid entry into force of the Paris Agreement and the promotion of international cooperation in addressing climate change.
This annual report, China’s Policies and Actions for Addressing Climate Change 2017, is issued to enable all parties to fully understand China's actions, policies and accomplishments in addressing climate change from 2016 onwards.