China leads in global green and low-carbon energy transition

China continued to lead the global green and low-carbon energy transition in 2024, with investments in non-fossil energy accounting for one-third of global investments, CCTV News reported on Thursday.

Renewable energy has become the mainstay of electric power installation and China's petroleum consumption is projected to reach its peak in 2025, the report said citing an industrial report on domestic and international oil and gas development.

The electrification rate of end-use energy rose to around 29 percent, while the proportion of petroleum in the primary energy consumption structure decreased.

In 2024, China's apparent petroleum consumption reached 756 million tons, with total consumption of refined oil amounting to 390 million tons, marking a 1.7 percent year-on-year decrease, signaling a shift from growth to decline in refined oil consumption.

Refined oil consumption has actually peaked, mainly due to the rapid development of new energy resources, especially the rapid iteration of new energy vehicles, said Lu Ruquan, head of the China National Petroleum Corp Economics and Technology Research Institute.

However, the consumption of aviation kerosene, oil for chemical use, particularly oil and gas usage for high-end chemical materials are still growing rapidly, Lu said.

China's petroleum and petrochemical markets are undergoing a period of transformation and reshaping due to economic structural adjustments, improvements in energy efficiency, and the evolution of transportation modes and energy usage structures.

The growth momentum of petroleum demand is shifting, with a trend of declining refined oil consumption and increasing usage of chemical oil.

In 2025, the country's petroleum and natural gas reserves is expected to remain high, with approximately 1 billion tons of new petroleum geological reserves and about 1 trillion cubic meters of new natural gas geological reserves.

China's petroleum consumption is projected to peak this year, with a total annual demand for refined oil of 382 million tons, representing a 1.9 percent year-on-year decrease.