(File photo)

China is expected to over-fulfill its reduction target of greenhouse gases emission by 2020, given a 4-percent drop in the country’s carbon intensity in the first nine months of 2017, said Li Gao, an official with the department for climate change under China’s National Development and Reform Commission.

Li made the remarks at this year’s Asia-Pacific Forum on Low Carbon Technology held in Changsha, Hunan, on Nov. 29.

According to him, the annual growth of energy consumption, which stood at 5.1% from 2005 to 2015, had supported an average annual economic growth rate of 9.5% over the same period. The country has cut 4.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions, preliminarily unhooking the connections between economic progress and carbon emissions.

In 2016, non-fossil energy accounted for 13.3% of the primary energy consumption, Li said, adding that energy consumption per GDP unit and carbon dioxide emissions have dropped 5% and 6.6%, respectively.

The carbon emission trading system will be initiated at the end of this year, and a national carbon market will be gradually established, Li noted.

He remarked that China will keep playing a constructive role in global climate governance and lead international cooperation on climate change.