The 2024 Global Energy Transition Conference opened in Beijing on Saturday, highlighting new opportunities brought by low-carbon technologies and China's advancement in its green transformation drive.
Themed "Transformative Development, Green Future" and held in the Future Science City in Beijing's suburban Changping District, the event includes an opening ceremony, a general conference, nine special sessions, an exhibition, and a number of other activities.
At the conference, experts and scholars from both China and abroad urged enhanced energy transition cooperation to confront climate change and respond to more frequent and intensified extreme weather events around the globe.
"Enhancing cooperation in energy transition and confronting climate change together have become a global consensus. Countries in the world have a fair access to solar and wind energy resources because they are everywhere, unlike the uneven geographical distribution of coal, oil and natural gas. Developed countries should better support developing and underdeveloped countries in achieving carbon neutrality in terms of technology, talent and capital, which I think remains a great challenge," said Jin Zhijun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
China is vigorously promoting the development of renewable energy with its installed capacity of hydro, solar and wind power generation all ranking first in the world. The country plans to raise the share of non-fossil energy consumption to about 25 percent by 2030.
The development and application of various innovative technologies related to hydrogen energy, and carbon capture and storage (CCS) have garnered high attention at the conference.
"The world is experiencing a growing wave of technological innovation around green and low-carbon energy transition. China can ride this wave to push forward its own energy transition, because it is an opportunity for us," said Li Jifeng, a research fellow at the Institute of Resources and Environmental Policy under the Development Research Center of the State Council.
"A large amount of high-quality innovation resources has gathered in the Future Science City in Beijing because of the Global Energy Transition Conference. By focusing on the development of green and low-carbon industries, we have seen the emergence of many innovation results in such key areas as energy internet, hydrogen energy storage, wind and solar technology and equipment. Now China boasts the world's largest iron-chromium flow battery energy storage station and the new-generation 18-megawatt offshore direct-drive wind turbine," said Liu Qiang, deputy director of the management committee of the Future Science City.
Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu said at the conference that China will actively foster green productivity, advance research and development, promotion and application of green and low-carbon technologies, and ramp up efforts in the construction of a carbon trading market covering more industries.
"By the end of this year, we will have expanded the national carbon emission trading market from the power sector to the steel, cement, aluminum and other industries. The carbon emission pricing mechanism will be further improved, and the carbon footprint management system will be built at a faster pace accordingly," said Huang.
As a high-level event with a huge international reach in the energy sector, the conference has been held for six consecutive years.
Energy conference in Beijing highlights new opportunities brought by green transition
