BEIJING, Sept. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Global experts and policymakers gathered at Tsinghua University on September 22 for a high-level seminar on global carbon neutrality to launch the 2026 Global Carbon Neutrality Annual Progress Report, which examines the factors accelerating or constraining the transition across 198 countries and regions.
The event was part of a series marking the fifth anniversary of the Institute for Carbon Neutrality (ICON) at Tsinghua University and the sixth anniversary of China’s “dual carbon” goals. It also coincided with the beginning of China’s 15th Five-Year Plan period.
The seminar brought together perspectives from government, academia and international organizations on the global transition. Speakers included Li Gao, Vice Minister of China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment; Zhang Laibin, Chair of the Academic Committee of China University of Petroleum (Beijing); Zeng Rong, Executive Vice President of Tsinghua University; and Erik Solheim, former UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director of UNEP, who delivered remarks via video. The seminar was chaired by He Kebin, Member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and Dean of the Tsinghua University Institute for Carbon Neutrality.
Wang Can, professor at Tsinghua University presented the 2026 report, which draws on more than 200 indicators to assess progress toward carbon neutrality across 198 countries and regions, tracking progress and identifying the underlying drivers and constraints of the global transition.
The report identifies several trends:
- A new phase of the low-carbon transition is emerging, increasingly driven by technological progress but shaped by broader system conditions.
- Mature technologies are accelerating, with wind and solar power, energy storage, and electric vehicles continuing to expand rapidly.
- System-level bottlenecks remain significant, including limited grid integration capacity, high financing costs, gaps in market mechanisms, and barriers to international technology diffusion.
- Emerging technologies face additional commercialization challenges. Clean hydrogen and carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) continue to encounter constraints related to demand, infrastructure, and viable business models.
- Developing economies face particularly strong barriers, including high financing costs, trade barriers, and insufficient system capacity to absorb and deploy green technologies.
The findings suggest that while technological costs are declining and deployment is accelerating, the pace and scale of the global transition increasingly depend on whether financing, infrastructure, markets, and international cooperation can develop alongside technological progress.
The full report is available through Tsinghua University’s Global Carbon Neutrality Progress Tracker at www.cntracker.tsinghua.edu.cn.
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