Interactive: What China’s ‘five-year plans’ say about climate and energy is a comprehensive tracking tool that monitors and analyses China’s 15th five-year plans (2026–2030). The resource focuses on the integration of climate and energy policies within national, sectoral, and thematic policy documents. It is particularly relevant for finance professionals seeking to understand the regulatory trajectory and emission targets of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter.

Organisation behind the tool

The tool is developed and maintained by Carbon Brief, a UK-based website specialising in the science and policy of climate change. The analysis was conducted by Anika Patel and Lekai Liu, with design and development by Tom Pearson and Kerry Cleaver.

What the tool does

The tracker identifies and summarises climate-related policies across dozens of five-year plans issued by Chinese central-government ministries. Key features include:

• A searchable database of over 70 plans, categorised into overarching, key climate/energy, and other thematic documents.
• Extraction of “primary goals” including numerical targets (e.g., carbon intensity reductions) and non-numerical directives.
• Summaries of notable secondary policies relating to specific industries like coal, nuclear, offshore wind, and electric vehicles.
• Direct links to the original full-text policy documents or official summaries.
• Filtering capabilities based on specific topics such as carbon markets, hydrogen, and clean-energy technologies.

Target audience

The tool is intended for policymakers, climate researchers, energy analysts, and finance professionals who need to monitor China’s progress toward its goal of peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030.

Relevance to finance professionals

• Risk assessment – Understanding China’s official policy shift toward peaking coal and oil use helps in assessing transition risks for fossil fuel-dependent assets.
• ESG analysis – Provides primary-source data on national emission intensity targets (17% reduction for the 15th period) and non-fossil energy consumption goals (25% by 2030).
• Market/commodity insights – Offers detailed targets for the scaling of clean technologies, including a target of 110GW for nuclear power and 40 million charging points for electric vehicles.
• Investment context – Identifies specific sectors slated for rapid development, such as smart EVs, hydrogen, and large-scale clean-energy bases.