The global push toward carbon neutrality has reached a critical juncture. One decade after the Paris Agreement to fight global warming was adopted, nations are navigating complex pathways to turn their commitments into tangible action. Against this backdrop, the Global Carbon Neutrality Forum was held at Tsinghua University in Beijing on September 26, during which the 2025 Global Carbon Neutrality Annual Progress Report was launched. The forum was a pivotal platform to align strategies and reinforce momentum.

The forum, chaired by He Kebin, Dean of Tsinghua's Institute for Carbon Neutrality, gathered leading experts from international governments, academia and other institutions. In his opening speech, he underscored that despite some developed economies retreating from their commitments, the global transition toward green and low-carbon development has become an irreversible trend, a conclusion strongly supported by data documented in the 2025 Global Carbon Neutrality Annual Progress Report. According to the report, the vast majority of countries have now set carbon neutrality targets, and global renewable energy capacity is on track to triple by 2030.

Policy-driven practices

Since announcing its dual carbon goals in 2020 to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, China has integrated these targets into its broader ecological civilization framework. Over the past five years, the country has established a comprehensive carbon reduction policy system and achieved breakthroughs in key areas including energy transition and industrial structure optimization.

On September 24, in his video address to the United Nations Climate Change Summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping introduced the country's new Nationally Determined Contributions. By 2035, China will reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions by 7-10 percent from the 2030 peak; increase the share of non-fossil energy in total energy consumption to over 30 percent; raise total installed capacity of wind and solar power to at least six times their 2020 levels; increase forest stock volume, or the total volume of the trunks of all living trees in a given forest area, to over 24 billion cubic meters—from the 20-plus billion cubic meters as of late 2024; make new-energy vehicles the mainstream of newly sold vehicles; expand the national carbon market to cover all major high-emission industries; and largely complete the building of a climate-resilient society. Such a society can anticipate, prepare for, absorb, recover from and adapt to the negative impacts of climate change.

Liu Yang, Deputy Director General of the Department of Climate Change under the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, spoke about a shift in China's focus. "The newly introduced Net Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Rate Indicator is China's first absolute emission reduction target for the period after peaking emissions," he said at the forum. "It represents a major shift from a focus on carbon dioxide to all greenhouse gases and from controlling carbon intensity to reducing total emissions. Compared to developed countries at a similar development stage, China will achieve a comparable reduction over a shorter time span—and we aim to do even better."

Global cooperation

At the global level, carbon neutrality progress is characterized by a structural imbalance, the 2025 report stated, while targets and technological innovations provide impetus, climate finance and international cooperation lag behind. The report evaluated the progress of 198 countries and regions in carbon neutrality commitments, low-carbon technology and climate investment and finance.

Wang Can, lead author of the report and a professor at the School of Environment at Tsinghua University, summarized its core findings: "On the 10th anniversary of the Paris Agreement, our report concludes that global carbon neutrality has entered a critical stage. Renewable energy costs have fallen pointedly, and actions by cities and companies continue to advance. These trends collectively signal that the low-carbon transition is unstoppable."

"At the same time," Wang Can added, "progress on carbon neutrality faces headwinds. Political ambition across nations remains insufficient to meet collective emission reduction targets. Key technologies are lagging. We need to scale up efforts in some core solutions. Some developed countries have not delivered on their climate finance commitments. Projections show that by 2035, considering the current trend, only some 13 percent of the necessary $300 billion will be in place. This report calls for actions to narrow the implementation gap, inject new momentum into related technologies, address bottlenecks and rebuild trust in international cooperation."

Carbon market development was a key topic at the forum. A carbon market is a trading system where companies can buy and sell the right to emit carbon dioxide, creating a financial incentive to cut emissions faster and cheaper.

China's national carbon market now covers the power, steel, cement and aluminum smelting sectors, regulating over 60 percent of the country's carbon dioxide emissions and making it the world's largest carbon market in terms of coverage.

"China's carbon market is still in its early stages, facing issues such as insufficient market vitality and a lag in allowance allocation methods. There is an urgent need for reform, drawing on experiences from the European Union and the United States, and deepening alignment with international rules such as the Paris Agreement to enhance its global influence," Wang Jinnan, an academician from the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said.

At the corporate level, zero-carbon industrial park initiatives are accelerating nationwide. These parks aim to achieve a balance between carbon emissions and absorption within a defined area through optimized energy structures, low-carbon industrial transformation and resource recycling. In July, China's National Development and Reform Commission issued a notice promoting the construction of such parks.

Zhao Hualin, former Chairman of the Supervisory Board for Key Large State-Owned Enterprises under the State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, believes that industrial parks will play a bigger role in the fight against climate change and the pursuit of carbon neutrality in the near future.

"Industrial parks in China account for less than 3 percent of the country's land area but contribute more than 50 percent of industrial added value. Roughly 80 percent of enterprises are located in such parks, making their low-carbon transition essential to achieving China's dual carbon goals. Local governments are now actively promoting circular transformation and low-carbon development pathways for these parks," Zhao added.

International cooperation remains a cornerstone of climate action. Zhu Xian, former Vice President of the New Development Bank, a multilateral development bank established by the original BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) nations to finance infrastructure and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging economies, highlighted the persistent inadequacy in support from developed countries to developing countries. "Although climate change is a global consensus, financial and technological support from developed nations remains far from adequate," he noted.

In terms of the technological innovation of enterprises, Xu Hao, Vice President of Sustainable Social Value at Chinese multinational tech conglomerate Tencent, shared the company's efforts to advance cutting-edge technologies such as carbon capture, utilization and storage technologies through initiatives like the Carbon Quest Plan, moving lab breakthroughs toward market application.

"Beyond improving our own capabilities, we are working to promote global information sharing and transparency," Xu said. "We are supporting African enterprises, which host numerous projects suited to low-carbon development. For instance, a startup in Namibia is already using solar energy to produce iron—on a small scale, but with leading technology. Africa is rich in mineral resources, and we will continue to support such early-stage exploration."

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon

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