China first-quarter emissions fell despite rising power demand

Beijing: China s emissions fell in the first quarter of 2025 despite rapidly growing power demand thanks to soaring renewable and nuclear energy, a ke...

Beijing: China's emissions fell in the first quarter of 2025 despite rapidly growing power demand thanks to soaring renewable and nuclear energy, a key milestone for world's top emitter, analysis showed Thursday.

The country emits more than twice as much planet-warming greenhouse gases -- mainly carbon dioxide -- as any other. It plans to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

Beijing has invested heavily in its renewable energy sector, building almost twice as much wind and solar capacity as the rest of the world combined, according to research published last year.

New wind, solar and nuclear capacity meant China's CO2 emissions fell by 1.6 percent year-on-year in the first quarter, and one percent in the 12 months to March, said analyst Lauri Myllyvirta at the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

"Growth in clean power generation has now overtaken the current and long-term average growth in electricity demand, pushing down fossil fuel use," Myllyvirta said.