China’s wind and solar energy capacity has surpassed that of mostly coal-powered thermal for the first time, the national energy body said Friday.
China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases that drive climate change, has pledged to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
While around 60 percent of China’s energy comes from coal, the country is also a renewable energy powerhouse, building almost twice as much wind and solar capacity as every other country combined, according to research published last year.
“In the first quarter of 2025, China’s newly installed wind and photovoltaic power capacity totalled 74.33 million kilowatts, bringing the cumulative installed capacity to 1.482 billion kilowatts,” the national energy body said.
That surpassed the installed capacity of thermal power (1.451 billion kilowatts) for the first time.
President Xi Jinping said on Wednesday that “no matter how the…
