China makes historic breakthroughs in green energy development: white paper

BEIJING, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) — China has made historic breakthroughs in green and low-carbon energy development over the past decade amid its quest for a sustainable future, according to a white paper issued Thursday.
As China continuously pushed reform of its energy production and consumption methods and upgraded its energy supply capacity, its clean energy development has been put on a fast track, according to the white paper titled “China’s Energy Transition.”
Clean energy accounted for 26.4 percent of the country’s total energy use in 2023, up from 15.5 percent in 2013, while the share of coal in its energy consumption dropped by 12.1 percentage points during the past decade, according to the white paper.
The country’s electricity generated from clean energy has accounted for more than half of the increase in total electricity consumption over the past decade, marking a growing share of green energy in its energy mix.
In 2023, electricity generated from clean energy accounted for 39.7 percent of the country’s total power generation, up by around 15 percentage points from 2013.
The country’s installed capacity of clean energy reached 1,700 gigawatts last year, or 58.2 percent of the country’s total installed power generation capacity, according to the white paper.
The white paper also noted that as China tried to synergize energy transition with environmental protection, its energy consumption per unit of GDP fell evidently, down by more than 26 percent from 2013 to 2023. ■