China News Service, Beijing, March 25th: How to take a "smart" step to achieve global carbon neutrality?
China News Service reporter Liu Wenwen
As global climate change intensifies, the "green call" becomes more intense, and it has become a consensus to actively "embrace" carbon neutrality. At the "Carbon Neutrality and Global Climate Governance Symposium" of the China Development Forum 2024 Annual Meeting held in Beijing recently, many Chinese and foreign people believed that to achieve carbon neutrality, we must take a "smart" step, and the power of scientific and technological innovation is indispensable. Or missing.
Promote digital transformation and reduce “carbon” content
As various industries continue to pay more attention to climate governance, how to achieve carbon neutrality has become a "must answer" for enterprises in various countries in their sustainable development.
Agriculture and food processing are important contributors to greenhouse gases and important solutions providers. Bayer Group’s “Digital Farmland” solution is an innovative attempt to use digital means to reduce carbon emissions from farmland. "With the help of 'digital farmland', we can see how much carbon dioxide farmers have 'put' into the fields. Farmers can also try to save carbon indicators and sell their own 'carbon products' in the carbon market. This is of great significance to the future of sustainable agriculture." That goes a long way,” said Bayer Group CEO Bill Andersen.
How to balance carbon reduction and efficiency improvement is an important problem faced by various industries. According to Zhang Jianqiu, senior executive president of Yili Group, accelerating digital transformation is a "golden key" to solve this problem. In recent years, Yili has done a lot of exploration and practice in the digital transformation of the entire chain.
The Chilechuan Ecological Smart Ranch located in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, can be said to be the most intelligent and environmentally friendly ranch in the world. Zhang Jianqiu introduced that this farm uses digital technology to manage the "clothing, food, housing and transportation" of cows. Through real-time monitoring of outside temperature, humidity, and light, it can automatically switch on and off related equipment such as fans, sprinklers, and roller shutters in the barn, which not only improves efficiency. , and also greatly reduces energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Innovate productivity and increase “green” content
As a zero-emission clean energy carrier, green hydrogen is of great significance to the transformation and upgrading of the energy structure. ThyssenKrupp CEO Miguel Lopez revealed that they are building the first hydrogen energy direct reduction plant, which is also one of the largest industrial decarbonization projects in the world. It is reported that the hydrogen-based process in the direct reduction plant will lay an important foundation for achieving completely carbon-neutral steel production.
As Zhang Junting, chairman of Rongcheng Steel Group, said, "Original and disruptive new technologies are new productivity." This will bring new models, reshape the global industrial chain, and add new impetus to industrial transformation and economic upgrading.
China has been accelerating the research, development, promotion and application of advanced energy-saving and carbon-reducing technologies, contributing Chinese wisdom to global carbon reduction. Zhao Yingmin, Vice Minister of China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that China's economic and social development has entered a stage of high-quality development that accelerates greening and low-carbonization.
Yu Bing, general manager of China National Energy Group, pointed out that China’s current new energy power generation technology can be said to be in the first echelon in the world. Zero-carbon and carbon-negative cutting-edge technologies such as large-scale energy storage and hydrogen energy have continued to make breakthroughs, contributing 70% to the world. Above photovoltaic modules and 60% of wind power equipment.
The International Renewable Energy Agency report pointed out that in the past ten years, the average LCOE of global wind power and photovoltaic power generation projects has dropped by more than 60% and 80% respectively. "A large part of this is attributed to Chinese innovation, Chinese manufacturing, and Chinese engineering." , said Liu Zhenmin, China’s special envoy for climate change affairs.
Experts said that there is a long way to go to achieve global carbon neutrality. In the process, technological innovation will profoundly reshape productivity, continue to promote the in-depth transformation and upgrading of industries, and provide a steady stream of "smart" momentum for global carbon reduction. (over)