New Silk Road opens new era of partnership on ancient route

To lower its growing carbon footprint, China should diversify its power generation resources through better cooperation with neighboring countries and increased use of renewables and nuclear energy.

"Such measures will play a big role in reducing the environmental footprint ... It's also good for energy security in China. You can rely on the sun and wind to produce electricity, instead of relying on imports," he said.

At the same time, it is also important for China to take active steps to boost energy efficiency and reduce energy intensity, an important lesson learned by the developed countries during their industrialization process.

Energy demand in developed countries has peaked and started to decline. The future demand and growth for energy will mainly come from developing countries such as China and India, but as of today these countries still have little voice in the global energy governance system.

"To have more voice you have to be a part of the institutions that already in place," said Rusnak. Emerging countries like China could play a significant role in global energy governance if they adhere to the existing rules and participate in governance and formulation of rules. "You cannot change the rules from the outside," he said.

China has already played a prominent role in bilateral cooperation, but it could play a bigger role if it participates more in the existing multilateral organizations, he said.

Rusnak also urged Chinese public and academics to engage actively in discussions about China's role in multilateral energy organizations.

Such steps will create more favorable conditions for Chinese companies and prove to be beneficial for them in bilateral business and also when getting along with a group of countries, he said.

The Energy Charter Secretariat is an organization that promotes international energy cooperation and energy investments. All countries along the Silk Road other than China are members of the Energy Charter Conference. China has been an observer since 2001.

Rusnak said China and the Charter are making efforts to develop closer cooperation and the Charter hopes for more Chinese involvement in the Charter process.

"The end goal for the cooperation should be a full membership, but today it's too premature to talk about this," he said.

One project under the secretariat assessment is the possibility of building a multilateral cooperation framework with Russia, Mongolia, China, South Korea and Japan on how to establish closer energy cooperation in Northeast Asia.

China could benefit by less production of electricity from coal and other fossil fuels and bridge the gap with electricity, produced by renewable resources in Russia and Mongolia, which will promote the goal of sustainability and better regional cooperation, he said.

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