Wind and solar power are central to China’s carbon neutrality strategy and energy system transformation. This review adopts a system-oriented perspective to examine the future development of wind, photovoltaic (PV), and concentrated solar power (CSP), situating technological progress within a broader framework that includes forecasting approaches, power system flexibility, energy storage integration, and sectoral coupling. It summarizes the spatial potential and projected capacity trajectories under carbon neutrality goals, with estimates suggesting a combined capacity of 5,496 to 7,662 GW of wind and solar power by 2060, constituting more than 83% of China’s total installed power capacity. While notable progress has been made in technological maturity and the reduction of power generation costs, supported by robust domestic supply chains, persistent challenges remain across technical and systemic dimensions, including limited generation efficiency, the high cost of supporting energy storage technologies, and constraints on grid flexibility and policy coordination. This review further proposes a strategic roadmap for sustainable development, emphasizing the integrated deployment of wind and solar as the dominant sources of power generation.

The response to climate change and air pollution control demonstrates strong synergy across scientific mechanisms, targets, strategies, and governance systems. This report, based on a monitoring indicator system for coordinated governance of air pollution and climate change, employs an interdisciplinary approach combining natural and social sciences. It establishes 20 indicators across five key areas: air pollution and climate change, governance systems and practices, structural transformation and technologies, atmospheric components and emission reduction pathways, and health impacts and co-benefits. This report tries to provide actionable insights into the interconnectedness of air pollution and climate governance. It highlights key policy gaps, presents updated indicators, and offers a refined monitoring framework to track progress toward China's dual goals of reducing emissions and improving air quality. Compared to previous editions, this year's report has updated four key indicators: meteorological impacts on air quality, climate change and its effects, governance policies, and low-carbon building energy systems. The aim is to further refine the monitoring framework, track progress, and establish a comprehensive theory for collaborative governance while identifying challenges and proposing solutions for China's pathway to carbon neutrality and clean air. The report comprises six chapters. The executive summary chapter is followed by analyzing air pollution and climate change interactions. Governance systems and practices are discussed in the third chapter, focusing on policy implementation and local experiences. The fourth chapter addresses structural transformations and emission reduction technologies, including energy and industrial shifts, transportation, low-carbon buildings, carbon capture and storage, and power systems. The fifth chapter outlines atmospheric component dynamics and emission pathways, presenting insights into emission drivers and future strategies. The sixth chapter assesses health impacts and the benefits of coordinated actions. Since 2019, China Clean Air Policy Partnership has produced annual reports on China's progress in climate and air pollution governance, receiving positive feedback. In 2023, the report was co-developed with Tsinghua University's Carbon Neutrality Research Institute, involving over 100 experts and multiple academic forums. The collaboration aims to continuously improve the indicator system and establish the report as a key resource supporting China's efforts in pollution reduction, carbon mitigation, greening, and sustainable growth.

As the world's most populous country, China has witnessed rapid urbanization in recent decades, with population migration from rural to urban (RU) regions as the major driving force. Due to the large gap between rural and urban consumption and investment level, large-scale RU migration impacts air pollutant emissions and creates extra uncertainties for air quality improvement. Here, we integrated population migration assessment, an environmentally extended input–output model and structural decomposition analysis to evaluate the NO_x, SO₂ and primary PM_2.5 emissions induced by RU migration during China's urbanization from 2005 to 2015. The results show that RU migration increased air pollutant emissions, while the increases in NO_x and SO₂ emissions peaked in approximately 2010 at 2.4 Mt and 2.2 Mt, accounting for 9.2% and 8.7% of the national emissions, respectively. The primary PM_2.5 emissions induced by RU migration also peaked in approximately 2012 at 0.3 Mt, accounting for 2.8% of the national emissions. The indirect emissions embodied in consumption and investment increased, while household direct emissions decreased. The widening gap between urban and rural investment and consumption exerted a major increasing effect on migration-induced emissions; in contrast, the falling emission intensity contributed the most to the decreasing effect benefitting from end-of-pipe control technology applications as well as improving energy efficiency. The peak of air pollutant emissions induced by RU migration indicates that although urbanization currently creates extra environmental pressure in China, it is possible to reconcile urbanization and air quality improvement in the future with updating urbanization and air pollution control policies.

China is the largest coke producer and consumer. There is a pressing need to address the high emissions of air pollutants and carbon dioxide associated with traditional coking production. As the nation pursues a transition towards carbon neutrality, expanding supply chains for coking plants to produce hydrogen, methanol, and other green alternatives has garnered significant attention. However, the relative advantages of these strategies have remained uncertain. In this study, we integrate a life cycle assessment-economic analysis-scenario analysis model to evaluate various coke oven gas (COG) utilization routes (COGtM: COG-to-methanol, COGtLNG: COG-to-liquefied natural gas, COGtSA: COG-to-synthetic ammonia, and COGtH: COG-to-hydrogen). The results indicate that COGtSA emerges as the preferred option for balancing environmental and economic benefits. Meanwhile, COGtM demonstrates economic viability but is associated with higher environmental impacts. Despite being recognized as a significant strategic direction under carbon neutrality initiatives, COGtH faces economic feasibility and risk resilience limitations. COGtLNG encounters both financial and environmental challenges, necessitating strategic development from an energy security perspective. The projected coking capacity is anticipated to experience a slight increase in the mid-term yet a significant decline in the long term, influenced by steel production capacity. In potential future markets, COGtM is estimated to potentially capture a maximum market share of 16–34% in the methanol market. Furthermore, against the backdrop of continuously expanding potential demand for hydrogen, COGtH holds advantages as a transitional solution, but in the long run, it can only meet a small portion of the market. COGtSA can meet 7–14% of market demand and emerges as the most viable pathway from the viewpoint of balancing environmental and economic aspects and covering future markets.

Wind energy has become one of the most important measures for China to achieve its carbon neutrality goal. The spatial and temporal evolvement of economic competitiveness for wind energy becomes an important concern in shaping the decarbonization pathway in China. There has been an urgent need in power system planning to model the future dynamics of cost decline and supply potential for wind power in the context of carbon neutrality until 2060. Existing studies often fail to capture the rapid decline in the cost of wind power generation in recent years, and the prediction of wind power cost decline is more conservative than the reality. This study constructs an integrated model to evaluate the cost-competitiveness and grid parity potential of China's onshore wind electricity at fine spatial resolution with updated parameters. Results indicate that the total onshore wind potential amounts to 54.0 PWh. The average levelized cost of wind power is expected to decline from CNY 0.39 kWh⁻¹ in 2020 to CNY 0.30 and CNY 0.21 kWh⁻¹ in 2030 and 2060. 28.3%, 67.6%, and 97.6% of the technical potentials hold power costs lower than coal power in 2020, 2030, and 2060.