China’s voluntary mitigation target and road of low-carbon development

China is going through a rapid development stage of industrialization and urbanization. Although tremendous achievements have been made in the aspects of energy conservation, improvement of energy effectiveness and development of new and renewable energies, because of the rapid development of economy, it is difficult to change the huge total amount and fast increase of CO₂ emission in the near future. China has to confront the tough challenge to address global climate change. China plans to reduce carbon intensity, that is, CO₂ emissions per unit GDP, by 40 to 45% by 2020 compared with the 2005 level. It is a strategic option to coordinate domestic sustainable development with coping with global climate change on the basis of China’s national circumstances, representing the core content and key measures for transforming development pattern and realizing low-carbon development. To achieve the target, more capital and technology input sare required for energy conservation and low-carbon development during the twelfth and Thirteenth Five Year Plan period than in the Eleventh Five Year Plan period. In addition, energy conservation achieved by structural adjustment, industrial upgrading and product value–added improvement is also expected to play a greater role. Therefore, China should strengthen technological innovation, make greater efforts to transform the development pattern, take advantage of the synergistic effect of policies and measures while coping with global climate change and building a domestic tow–oriented society. China should also establish an industrial system characterized by low-carbon emission. Then China will ultimately achieve a win-win situation in both domestic sustainable development and coping with global climate change. Key words: Climate change, low-carbon economy, carbon intensity, emission reduction target.