China’s Energy Development for 2035: Strategic Thinking and Suggestions

Abstract

The period before 2035 is critical for China to realize socialist modernization. The high-quality development of its energy industry must consider basic national conditions and development stages. Moreover, promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of the energy industry while guaranteeing a stable energy supply is the prerequisite for ensuring the sustainable economic and social development. This study summarized the current status of China’s energy development from six aspects: energy capacity, energy structure, comprehensive energy efficiency, energy science and technology, system and mechanism, and energy security. The key issues of energy development were analyzed, focusing on the role of coal for guaranteeing energy security, replacement of traditional energies with renewable energies for incremental energy consumption, sustainable supply of oil and gas, independent development of nuclear power, and large-scale development of the hydrogen energy industry. Four stages were proposed for the energy revolution and carbon reduction in China by 2035. Furthermore, we suggest that energy conservation should be prioritized in all aspects, clean and efficient use of coal should be promoted, renewable energies should be the major source of future energy increment, and low-carbon transformation should be accelerated to create an energy system that features multi-energy complementation.

Keywords

• energy revolution
• energy security
• low-carbon transformation
• carbon peaking and carbon neutrality
• clean and efficient utilization of coal