China goes full throttle on green energy transition to achieve carbon neutrality

GUIYANG - A global forum on ecological civilization, Eco Forum Global Guiyang 2021, opened Monday in Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province.

The forum will witness a range of online and offline activities. Lots of guests are expected to join the event online, while around 500 are attending the forum on site.

It is tipped to evolve into a global campaign aimed at dramatically reducing the world's carbon footprint, said Peter Koenig, a former senior economist with the World Bank, attending the event via video link.

China is the world's largest producer and consumer of energy, with fossil fuels making up about 85 percent of the energy structure.

China has vowed to attain carbon dioxide emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.

The country is going full throttle to develop new energy resources and increase their proportion in primary energy consumption nationwide, which are expected to lighten the burden on the environment and ecosystems and provide practical solutions to mitigating soil, surface water and air pollutions, said Lei Yizhu, head of Guizhou's carbon neutrality research institute.

"Such efforts can also greatly promote China's carbon dioxide emission reduction, slowing down global warming and improving the global climate conditions," Lei said.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), as the country strives for low-carbon transition, relevant eco-friendly industries in fields such as clean energy are to cash in the bonanza, said Zhao Weidong, head of the institute of energy conservation and environmental protection affiliated with the Center for Information and Industry Development, under China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

The overall geography of China features high altitudes in its western areas. Geographical conditions and poor foundation of transportation infrastructure used to hamper economic development in those regions.

Nowadays, however, the highlands with strong wind and sunny weathers see a flourishing clean energy market.

"Guizhou is a newcomer in developing new energy resources as it has to grapple with mountainous terrains, low wind speeds and rainy weather," said Shi Shaogui, director of the new energy and renewable energy department of the provincial energy bureau.

A decade ago, Guizhou had no installed power capacity of wind and photovoltaic energy. In 2011, however, the mountainous province pooled over 800 million yuan (about 124 million U.S. dollars) to build its first wind power plant in Jiucaiping.

When colossal wind turbines arrived, Li Xu, a local resident in Hongxing Village, Hezhang County, was startled. He witnessed the difficult transport of hulky wind turbines up to the high mountain.