China's renewable energy plan includes the country spending $361 billion on its power generation by 2020 and moving away from coal power.
China's announcement comes as the country struggles with the social and economic costs of its air pollution problem, particularly in the northern part of the country, Reuters reported. Beijing has battled a weeks-long fight with hazardous smog.
The country's National Energy Administration said in its document that more than 13 million jobs will be created in the renewable energy sector with its new investment into wind, hydro, solar, and nuclear power, Reuters reported.
"China surpassed the United States a decade ago as the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gasses, and now discharges about twice as much," New York Times writer Michael Forsythe noted. "For years, its oil and coal industries prospered under powerful political patrons and the growth-above-anything mantra of the ruling Communist Party.
"The result was choking pollution and the growing recognition that China, many of whose biggest cities are on the coast, will be threatened by rising sea levels," he continued.
China's National Development and Reform Commission recently announced that it started a five-year plan to increase its solar power output, The Guardian reported. China's plans to build solar plants on a large scale come as the cost of building such facilities has dropped 40 percent since 2010, according to The Guardian.
"The government may exceed these targets because there are more investment opportunities in the sector as costs go down," Steven Han, renewable analyst with securities firm Shenyin Wanguo, told The Guardian.
Even with its sizable investment, the NEA admitted Thursday that renewables will still only make up 15 percent of China's overall energy consumption by 2020, The Guardian reported. More than 50 percent of China's installed power capacity will still be fueled by coal over the same period.
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