Looking back at four decades of China's energy policy (1981–2020), three momentous shifts can be said to have taken place. From the Sixth Five-Year Plan (1981) to the Ninth Five-Year Plan (2000), the focus was exclusively on improving energy efficiency. Subsequently, from the Tenth Five-Year Plan (2001) to the Eleventh Five-Year Plan (2010), energy security also became a major objective, as awareness of the gradual depletion of fossil fuels grew. From 2011 onwards (Twelfth and Thirteenth Five-Year Plans), China's energy policy has also aimed to ward off climate change. This policy evolution suggests that the Chinese economy has initiated a low-carbon energy transition since 2011. Nevertheless, this transition cannot be considered sustainable because the local government are reluctant to apply stringent institutional limitations to wealth-creating processes within their jurisdiction and because China's energy consumption is not decoupled from its economic growth and total environmental costs of renewable energy are not taken account. In seeking to usher in a sustainable energy system, the Chinese government needs to overcome three challenges: 1/an institutional challenge; 2/an economic challenge and 3/an environmental challenge.