Emerging green products come under global spotlight at Canton Fair

A range of emerging, cutting-edge products and technologies is capturing the limelight at the ongoing China Import and Export Fair, also known as the Canton Fair, wowing visitors and customers with their functional designs and also being green and low carbon.

This year's Canton Fair has set up four exhibition areas and one central platform to showcase the dazzling products. A series of new product launch events will be staged here as well.

In addition to the four special releases held at the central platform, 125 new product display activities will take place offline in various pavilions.

Meanwhile, there will be a new product release section on the official website of the Canton Fair, and online release activities are expected to exceed 100.

About 810,000 exhibits have been displayed online at the current phase, including 145,000 new products and 129,000 green and low-carbon products.

Many green, low-carbon products focus on two aspects, including the raw materials and low-energy hardware design, both of which contribute to the energy conservation and emission reduction.

One highlight of the grand event is an exhibition hall specially set up for energy storage products in the new energy pavilion, which provides space for 110 new energy exhibitors to showcase their new energy products like lithium batteries and photovoltaic products.

Among those amazing exhibits is a photovoltaic solar pumping controller system, which can use solar panels to generate electricity and control the size of the water flow by adjusting the output frequency.

In deserts and other areas plagued by drought and inconvenient water transportation, it can be used to realize efficient and energy-saving irrigation and water supply by using solar energy.

In addition, a type of large, portable power bank is being showcased at the fair as well.

With the output power reaching 5,000W, the power bank can help an electric vehicle travel about 30 kilometers by charging one hour.

And it only takes about 70 minutes to fully charge the power bank by connecting to a flexible solar panel or household alternating current.

Moreover, multiple hydrogen energy-powered products have also drawn much attention, such as a hydrogen-powered bicycle and hydrogen fuel cell engine, attracting customers from both at home and abroad to place orders.

The 136th session of the Canton Fair kicked off on Tuesday in Guangzhou, the capital city of Guangdong Province in south China.

Themed "Serving high-quality development, promoting high-level opening-up", this edition of the fair features more than 30,000 exhibitors and showcases 1.15 million new products.

The event will be held in three phases between Oct 15 and Nov 4, and comprises 55 exhibition areas covering 1.55 million square meters.

Emerging green products come under global spotlight at Canton Fair

A principal analyst has raised concerns about Australia's newly passed social media ban for children and teenagers under 16.

With bipartisan support, the bill of social media ban for children under 16 passed the Senate of Australia on Thursday, the final sitting day of the year.

Under the world-first law, children and teenagers under 16 in Australia will be banned from using social media starting at the end of next year, a move that both the government and opposition party argue is necessary to protect their mental health and wellbeing.

In an interview with the China Global Television Network (CGTN), Liz Miller, vice president and principal analyst at Constellation Research, Inc., questioned the effectiveness of the measure, highlighting the broader challenges of regulating harmful content and its impact across age groups.

"Even if we are able to block a significant number of young people, people under the age of 16, from being able to create accounts and log into the social media channels, is that really going to impact enough? Because where the damage is really happening is a lot of the content, the conversation and the community that has an adverse effect on a lot of people, regardless of their age (related) psyche. I think there are a lot of questions, I think Australia is trying to take a hard stand. The question is going to be is whether we can enforce that," she said.

In addition, Miller also expressed concern about whether this will push young people into less regulated corners of the dark web.

"We all know that teenagers, regardless of what generation we became teenagers, we know how to get what we want. And right now, kids want that connection, and they want that social content. They want the videos, they want to laugh, they want to connect. I think the earnest desire to connect via these channels is always going to be there. They will find a way to get that. Unfortunately, kids who are looking for something that is a bit more specific -- that are looking for things that can be very damaging to not only their psyche, but to also to other folks in the community -- they're gonna find that online. So the bigger question becomes, what role have we missed out on in being able to not only just regulate and being able to say to kids, this is not content that we should be seeking out? How do we have a bit more control of that within our own homes and in our lives? It is a question that a lot of parents are starting to ask," she said.

Principal analyst has concerns about social media ban for children under 16 in Australia