China to cap rising emissions by 2030 in boost to Paris U.N. deal

PARIS (Reuters) - China formally committed to halting the rise in its greenhouse gas emissions within the next 15 years and pledged on Tuesday to reduce the carbon intensity of its vast economy, in a much-anticipated strategy for United Nations climate talks.

The world's top greenhouse gas emitter, China said it would try to CAP (CAP.CHL)(CAP.CHL)its carbon emissions before a 2030 target, in a plan that largely mirrors a U.S.-Chinese environment agreement last year.

"China's carbon dioxide emission will peak by around 2030 and China will work hard to achieve the target at an even earlier date," Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said in a statement after meeting French President Francois Hollande in Paris.

Paris will host a U.N. summit from Nov. 30 to Dec. 11, meant to agree a global deal to combat climate change.

China did not, however, say at what level its emissions would peak. The cap is the first set by China, which has traditionally argued it needs to burn more fossil fuels to end poverty and that developed nations must lead in climate action.

In a new element to the plan, China said it would reduce its CO2 emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 60-65 percent from 2005 levels by 2030. That would deepen a 40-45 percent cut already set by Beijing for 2020.

The world's second-largest economy also aims to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in its primary energy consumption to about 20 percent by 2030, the statement said, as part of a strategy to limit more heatwaves, floods and rising sea levels.

China accounts for a quarter of world greenhouse gases and its formal plan, to be submitted to the United Nations, means that governments accounting for more than half the global total have now outlined goals for climate action beyond 2020.

About 40 countries emitting just over 30 percent of world emissions have previously submitted their plans, including the United States and the European Union. National plans will be the building blocks of a Paris accord.

Benchmark EU carbon prices rose after the news and were last 1.6 percent higher at 7.49 euros a tonne.

The Chinese plan chimes with targets announced in November, when Beijing reached a key climate change deal with Washington to cap its emissions by 2030 and fill 20 percent of its energy needs from zero-carbon sources.

"China?s plan reflects its firm commitment to address the climate crisis," said Jennifer Morgan of the World Resources Institute think tank. She said there was "growing momentum" for international climate action.

Many experts outside China reckon it can peak its emissions before 2030, given signs such as a fall in coal consumption in 2014. And Beijing is under strong pressure to shift to renewable energies, partly to curb air pollution.

"We can be more optimistic than China," Hanna Fekete of the independent New Climate Institute think tank in Germany, which tracks pledges, told Reuters. "In our estimates the peak would be around 2025 or even earlier."

She said she did not think Beijing's formal plan would affect the group's estimates last year that global temperatures are set to rise by 3.1 degrees Celsius (5.6 Fahrenheit) by 2100, far above a U.N. ceiling of 2 degrees (3.6F).

(Additional reporting by Leigh Thomas and Nina Chestney in London; Writing by Michel Rose and Alister Doyle; Editing by Dale Hudson and Keith Weir)