China's coal consumption accounted for 51.7 per cent of global use in 2019 and grew by 2.3 per cent last year,according to BP data,a greater rate than its 1.7 per cent annual average between 2008-2018.
"The proposal of this goal is to force China itself to improve and face this problem,"said Ma Jun,director of Beijing's Institute of Public&Environmental Affairs."Secondly,it brings pressure to other large-emitters who are unwilling to face this promise."
Chinese industry leaders have called for a shift from subsidies to market-driven policies for the surging renewable sector as Beijing prepares to unveil details of the policy in its 14th Five Year Plan in October.
"Every kilowatt added now is a burden after 2030,"Professor Yuan Jiahai of North China Electric Power University told the 2020 China Blue Sky Observation Forum last week.
The Morrison government has an economy-wide commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 per cent on 2005 levels by 2030 but has no target beyond that. It has been criticised for its plan to use carryover credits from the previous Kyoto agreement to meet the obligations established at the Paris UN conference in 2016.
Labor has also yet to define what target it will set. Mark Butler,the opposition's climate change spokesman,told the ABC on Monday that the global effect of Xi's announcement was"seismic",as China becomes for"clean energy in the 21st century what America was for IT in the 1990s."
Professor Bamsey said the UK,European Union and a potential Biden presidency will pressure Australia to match their climate goals ahead of Glasgow.
"We are an internationally connected economy and we will have to adopt the policies of our trading partners,including our main partner in China,"he said."We won't be able to continue to provide goods and services and ignore the climate dimension."
Jake Sullivan,an advisor to Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden,told the Lowy Institute in September that a Biden presidency would rally the nations of the world to"elevate their ambition".
"In that regard he will hold countries like China accountable for doing more but he is also going to push our friends to do more as well,to step up and fulfil their responsibilities for what is fundamentally a global problem,"he said.
The director of the European Union's Centre of Excellence at RMIT,Bruce Wilson,said China's pledge would increase pressure on Australia as it attempts to negotiate free trade deals with the EU and Britain.
"If anyone is trying to do a trade deal with the EU,the Paris deal is non-negotiable,"he said.
Professor Wilson said it was still not clear if the EU would accept Australia's use of Kyoto carryover credits to meet its obligations and said a"carbon border tax"was on the agenda for countries not compliant with the EU's environmental standards.
"If you are exporting an emissions heavy product into Europe there will be a tax on that,"he said.
Chief negotiators from the EU and Australia were expected to brief stakeholders about progress on the trade deal on Wednesday afternoon.
Professor Wilson said a post-Brexit free trade deal between the EU and UK would have flow-on effects for any separate Australian negotiations with Britain.
"They won't be able to say we have these environmental standards with the EU but different ones with Australia,"he said.
China's escalation is also set to have implications for Australia's diplomatic position in the Pacific,where it has been attempting to manage China's rising influence among some of its closest neighbours.
"From both sides of Parliament Australian politicians aren't understanding it,they approach climate change like it's just another issue for our Pacific counterparts. What Australian politicians do often miss is this issue is personal,"said Professor Bamsey.
"It concerns Pacific politicians when they get out of bed,they can see the changes to the future of their country when they look out the window."
with Sanghee Liu
Trump Biden 2020
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