China, the world’s biggest energy consumer and greenhouse gas emitter, will set a total cap on CO2 emissions in its next five-year plan starting in 2016, authorities announced recently.<br /> <br /> The cap requires China to increase the share of non-fossil fuels in the nation’s energy mix to 20-25% in 2030, through a real reduction in coal consumption from sometime around 2020 or 2025 and having 150-200 GWs of nuclear power capacity by 2030, said He Jiankun, chairman of China's Advisory Committee on Climate Change, in a conference in Beijing on June 3.<br /> <br /> Even with the cap in place, carbon emissions in the coal-reliant economy are likely to continue to grow from current 7 to 9.5 billion tonnes until 2030, peaking at around 11 billion tonnes of CO2-equivalent, He added.<br /> <br /> It is not clear at what level the cap would be set, and a final number is unlikely to be released until China has worked out more details of the next five-year plan, possibly sometime next year.<br /> <br /> The announcement comes a day after the United States, the world's second-biggest emitter, for the first time announced plans to rein in carbon emissions from its power sector.<br /> <br /> These announcements sent a very powerful signal to the rest of the world to get serious on emission reductions, said Reuters cited John Connor, CEO of Melbourne-based The Climate Institute, as saying.<br /> <br /> <p> The two unprecedented announcements on climate within 24 hours of each other sparked optimism among observers hoping to see the decades-old deadlock broken. The steps come ahead of a global meet on climate change starting on June 4 in Germany, where negotiators from over 190 nations meet for the latest 10-day round of talks in a process meant to lead to a new global climate treaty in Paris in December 2015.&nbsp; </p> <p style="text-align:center;"> <img src="/upfiles/news/image/20140605/20140605171600_1428.jpg" alt="" /> </p>