On 12 October, the government of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region published its 14th Five-Year Plan (FYP) on Addressing Climate Change. Through the portal website and a dedicated WeChat platform, citizens were involved in the planning process of the document. Furthermore, opinions were solicited from district departments, various league offices, and municipal governments.
The document lays out plans for mitigation, adaptation, low carbon pilots and climate governance systems in the region. It sets out a series of general aims for climate policy within the coming years, among them to encourage an increase of capital flowing into green and sustainable projects, and the better coordination of climate policy over several levels of government hierarchy.
According to the five-year plan, the installed capacity of renewable energy will reach 45 % and the renewable energy share of the total energy mix will reach 18 % by 2025. It also reiterated that the new production capacity of the “Two High” sectors, referring to sectors with high emissions and high pollution, such as the production of aluminium, coke, iron alloy etc., is strictly forbidden. There will be assessment of the implementation of this plan in 2023 and 2025, respectively.
A sustained focus is also on the reduction of water pollution, especially in the Yellow River, the Luan River, and the Songhua River basin, and the insurance of continued drinking water supply. Apart from this, media coverage also focused on measures taken to reduce air pollution, such as the reduction of coal burning for heating purposes.