Quantification of Selected SDGs in the Context of China's Climate Mitigation Pathway

Abstract

In 2020, China set targets for achieving peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality, in order to support the global Paris Agreement climate targets. Chinese national efforts and international collaborations have started to move in that direction. Meanwhile, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were introduced in 2015 at the Global Environment Summit. China also defined its national strategy for achieving the SDGs. There is close relationship between energy transition, climate change mitigation and achieving SDGs. This paper presents the linkages between the climate change mitigation pathways and SDGs. The energy transition pathways towards global net zero emissions and national carbon neutrality targets are presented as climate change mitigation pathways, with results of CO2 emissions. The pathways explore the contributions of the energy transition and climate change mitigation on achieving selected SDGs. The results show that the energy structure would change significantly in the energy transition pathways under the climate targets and the rapid increase in renewable and nuclear powers. According to the results of the selected SDGs, under the mitigation pathway for China, it may simultaneously lead to sustainable development in not only energy supply side, but also energy demand side, including industry, building, and transport sectors. Besides the global climate effects (SDG 13), local actions and measures aimed at meeting climate mitigation goals also generate domestic co-benefits, supporting progress toward SDG3 about good health, SDG6 about clean water, SDG7 about clean energy, SDG8 about economic growth, SDG9 about industry, SDG11 about sustainable cities, and SDG12 about responsible production and consumption. The close connections between China's climate mitigation strategies and these SDGs highlight the importance of integrating policies and measures related to both climate goals and SDG targets. Such integration can enhance synergies and lower the overall cost of implementation.

Keywords: Energy transition, Carbon neutrality, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Linkage, Quantitative analysis, Integrated assessment model, China