(Yicai Global) Jan. 21 -- China Baowu Steel Group plans to attain carbon neutral status by 2050, a decade earlier than the target set by the Chinese president at a United Nations forum last year, the chairman of the world’s biggest steel producer said yesterday.

Baowu intends to reach peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2023, and after this to have the technological capacity to reduce its emissions by 30 percent by 2025, by a further 30 percent by 2035 and to have a zero carbon footprint by 2050, Chen Derong said at the group’s annual executive meeting.

Last September, President Xi Jinping pledged that China would take the necessary steps to become carbon neutral by 2060.

The steel industry accounts for about 15 percent of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter's emissions.

Shanghai-based Baowu is the only steel mill in China to top an annual crude steel output of 100 million tons. Last year, it produced 115 million tons, nearly 11 percent of the country’s total output.

Editor: Kim Taylor