China has promised to dedicate its new "five-year plan" to tackling climate change, but concerns about economic growth and energy security are expected to temper the country's green ambitions.

Vice premier Han Zheng said in October that the 2021-2025 plan, due to be delivered to parliament in March, would be "dedicated to addressing climate change" and "focus on the country's new vision" to bring emissions to a peak before 2030 and achieve "carbon neutrality" by 2060.

But experts said Beijing is still likely to give regions leeway to focus on growth and build new coal-fired power stations to head off energy shortages.