China has promised to achieve the "dual-carbon" goal in order to reduce climate warming caused by human-induced CO₂ emissions, accelerate the transition of the electricity system toward renewable energy, and provide impetus to green development. Starting from summarizing the trend of recent studies, this paper encompasses the demand for energy transitions to meet the "dual-carbon" goal, analyzes the environmental problems in the processes of energy transition, and identifies the potential impacts of the production and operation of renewable energy on the environment and ecology. To cope with the challenge of achieving the "dual-carbon" goal, the trends of growth in power generation and energy consumption from 2021 to 2060 are predicted by analyzing the historical growth of renewable energy from 2010 to 2021. In addition, this paper analyzes the demand for land, power transmission, energy storage, and investment for the development of photovoltaic and wind power in China by taking into account the state-of-the-art estimate of photovoltaic and wind power generation. Based on the analysis, it is extrapolated that the renewable growth rate of clean energy in China is insufficient to satisfy the pledges aligning with the "dualcarbon" goal, therefore it is required to overcome the inertia in the energy and economic systems to strengthen the process of energy transition and increase the share of renewable energy in total energy supply. Lastly, a number of suggestions for policy are provided for accelerating the energy transitions to achieve the goal at a low economic cost.

carbon peaking  /  carbon neutrality  /  energy transitions  /  climate change  /  environmental impacts