China, the biggest  CO2 emitter in the world, burns more coal than the rest of the world combined and produces more than a quarter of the world’s human-caused global warming  gases. China’s greenhouse gas emissions account for two-thirds of the growth  in the year’s global greenhouse gas emissions. In order to contribute to  global effort to tackle climate change, China has adopted the 13th Five-Year  Plan (2016 to 2020) including energy intensity and carbon intensity reduction targets of 15% and 18% for 2020.

On 3 September 2016, China ratified the Paris Agreement on and its nationally determined contribution includes a commitment to peak CO2 emissions by 2030 at the latest, lower the carbon intensity of GDP by 60%–65% below 2005 levels by 2030, increase the share of non-fossil energy in its  total primary energy supply to around 20% by 2030, and increase its forest  stock volume by 4.5 billion cubic meters, compared to 2005 levels.

China’s efforts to make its economy more energy efficient and low-carbon yield results. According to China’s representative to UNFCCC negotiations Xie  Zhenhua, China reached its 2020 carbon emission target three years ahead of  schedule. At the end of 2017, China had cut carbon dioxide emissions per unit  of GDP by 46 % from the 2005 level. Significant role in the process of decarbonisation played country’s carbon  trading system (ETS) established in 2011. It covers power generation, iron  and steel production as well as cement manufacturing sectors in seven  provinces and municipalities. Building of the success of these pilot  projects, China on 19 December 2017 introduced an initial framework for the first nationwide phase of the ETS covering about 1,700 power firms with total carbon dioxide emissions in excess of 3 billion tons, making it the world’s  biggest. It is worth mentioning that China has successfully decoupled economic  growth and carbon emissions. From 2005 to 2015, China's economy grew by 148  times, while the amount of carbon emissions per unit of GDP dropped by 38.6%. Executive Secretary of UN Climate Change, Patricia Espinosa said:  “Excellent news coming out of China - very encouraging as the international community seeks to accelerate the transition to low carbon and to raise  ambition to achieve the Paris Agreement climate goals.”