Photo by Tommy Krombacher on Unsplash

China is stepping up efforts to achieve carbon peaking and neutrality goals.

The National Development and Reform Commission of China and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the Medium and Long-Term Plan for the Development of Hydrogen Energy Industry (2021-2035) on Wednesday, as the country races toward its dual carbon goals. 

In accordance with the roadmap charted in this plan, China aims to develop a fairly complete hydrogen energy industry development policy environment by 2025, with much-improved innovation capability and basically mastered core technologies and manufacturing processes. 

The country is expected to have around 50,000 fuel cell vehicles by 2025 with a batch of hydrogen refueling stations deployed.

Annual hydrogen production from renewable energy is expected to reach 100,000-200,000 tons, making it an important part of new hydrogen energy consumption by 2025. This will lead to a reduction of carbon dioxide emissions by 1 -2 million tons per year.

By 2030, China will achieve the broad application of hydrogen production from renewable energy via a more mature hydrogen energy industry technology innovation scheme and supply chain. 

By 2035, a diversified hydrogen energy ecosystem covering transportation, industry, energy storage, and other aspects will be built, as outlined in the roadmap. The significant improvement in the proportion of hydrogen produced from renewable energy will play a supporting role in helping China achieve green energy transformation.

As the world’s largest annual carbon emitter, China has put forward the country’s carbon peaking and neutrality goals at the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2020: reaching the national peak carbon emissions within ten years, along with a commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060.

The domestic hydrogen energy pioneers include the largest Chinese maker of fuel cell engine Beijing SinoHytec (688339:SH), SINOHEC, SPIC Hydrogen Energy, Fujian Snowman (002639:SZ), Shanxi Meijin Energy (000723:SZ), Sinosynergy Power, Shenzhen Center Power (002733:SZ), Sino-SFCC, HongDa Industrial (002002:SZ) and state-owned petroleum and chemical giant Sinopec Group (SNP: NYSE; 0386:HK).