Aerial photo taken on Nov. 30, 2018 shows a "charging tower" for electric vehicles at the headquarters of Chinese carmaker BYD in Shenzhen, south China's Guangdong Province. Photo: Xinhua

China has accelerated its transformation to green energy, as it sees 10.99 million new-energy vehicles (NEV) now run on the streets, accounting for half of the world's total running NEVs, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on Thursday. 

The NDRC, China's top economic planner, detailed the country's achievement in promoting environmental protection in the past decade during a press conference held in Beijing on Thursday, stating that China's NEV production and sales hit 3.97 million and 3.86 million, respectively, in the first eight months this year. 

The country's green power consumption made up 25.5 percent of the total in 2021, thanks to the government's strong campaigns to promote green energy usage. 

The country's current capacity for green power generation has surpassed 1.1 billion kilowatts per year, with its generation of hydropower, wind power, solar power and biomass power all ranking first in the world. 

Compared with the energy usage levels in 2012, the proportion of green power consumption in China increased by 11 percentage points to 25.5 percent now, while usage of coal-fired power dropped by 12.5 percentage points to 56 percent now, according to data released by NDRC. 

And, during the past 10 years, China has increased 960 million mu (64 million hectares) of forest area, has invested more than 100 billion yuan in infrastructure for environmental protection, the NDRC said, which vowed to keep up the efforts in order to realize the country's set carbon emission peak and carbon neutrality goals. 

Global Times