Green Winter Olympics highlight low-carbon concepts and emission reduction commitments
China handed over a dazzling "green transcript" (International Discussion Road)
Our reporter Yan Yu
The State Grid Zhangbei Rou Direct Project Yanqing Converter Station, like a "green sea and white jade", continuously sends green electricity to Beijing.
Photo by our reporter He Yong
Two torchbearers put the last torch into the center of the "big snowflake", and a "light fire" slowly rose into the night sky... Recently, at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the ingenious lighting ceremony attracted countless attention from all over the world.
Some foreign netizens said that China's move has proved that it is a major practitioner of clean energy use and a world advocate of environmental protection awareness.
Among the "Four Olympic Concepts" of the Beijing Winter Olympics, "green" ranks first.
The green elements and low-carbon concepts inside and outside the Winter Olympic venues show the world China's sincerity and efforts in fulfilling its emission reduction commitments.
Green Olympic Games, show determination
For the first time, hydrogen energy was used as torch fuel, and all venues achieved 100% green power supply. The National Speed Skating Stadium "Ice Ribbon" became the world's first avenue speed skating stadium that uses carbon dioxide transcritical direct cooling system to make ice... When reporting on the Beijing Winter Olympics , "green" has become one of the most used adjectives in foreign media.
Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao" said that the main theme of this Winter Olympics is "green Olympics".
The Zhangbei Renewable Energy Flexible DC Power Grid Test Demonstration Project, which was officially put into operation in 2020, is a key project to realize the green power supply for the Winter Olympics, and has also become a "green transcript" that China has shown to the world.
Agence France-Presse believes that China has demonstrated its green characteristics through the Beijing Winter Olympics.
China has pledged to use only wind, hydro and solar power to power the Winter Olympics.
Zhangjiakou City, one of the three centers of the Winter Olympics, has installed wind farms covering hundreds of acres with an installed capacity of 14 million kilowatts, which can provide the equivalent of the entire power generation of Singapore.
The Chinese government has also installed solar panels in the mountains.
Allegedly, these solar panels can bring 7 million kilowatts of electricity.
In addition, China has built a dedicated power plant to generate electricity from renewable energy sources, store it and transmit it to all venues, thus ensuring uninterrupted power supply.
The British magazine "Nature" recently published an article on how the Beijing Winter Olympics achieved carbon neutrality and praised Beijing's efforts to significantly reduce carbon emissions.
The magazine quoted Michael Davidson, an energy system researcher at the University of California, San Diego, as saying that the Beijing Winter Olympics will reduce carbon emissions by about 1.3 million tons. Achieving carbon neutrality in activities is possible.”
Foreign media generally believe that through the window of the Beijing Winter Olympics, the world has seen China's firm determination to develop green.
Reuters reported that China used the Winter Olympics to push for environmental improvements and made huge efforts to do so.
Hebei is committed to promoting the transformation and upgrading of its industrial economy.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of hectares of trees have been planted in Beijing and the surrounding Hebei province, and numerous wind and solar power plants have been built.
"China is becoming greener faster than any other country," the BBC said.
Intensive policy, quick action
In 2020, China made a solemn commitment to the world, striving to achieve carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060.
In order to achieve this "dual carbon" goal, China has intensively introduced a series of policy measures.
In October 2021, the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Completely, Accurately and Comprehensively Implementing the New Development Concept and Doing a Good Job in Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutralization" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") were released, which attracted the attention of foreign media.
Agence France-Presse reported that the main goals of the "Opinions" include reducing carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 18% by 2025 compared with 2020.
By 2030, carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will drop by more than 65% compared with 2005; the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption will reach about 25%, and the total installed capacity of wind power and solar power will reach more than 1.2 billion kilowatts.
The British "Guardian" and the American "Bloomberg" noted that one of the major goals put forward in the "Opinions" is that by 2060, the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption will reach more than 80%.
The website of the French weekly "Express" believes that China's announcement of the "dual carbon" goal and no new overseas coal power projects is indisputably at the forefront of the development of renewable energy.
Twood Zerk, president of the American Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, said in an interview with TURTV International Channel that before the 26th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in November 2021 , China formally submitted to the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change the "Effects of China's Implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions, New Goals and New Measures" and "China's Long-Term Greenhouse Gas Low Emissions Development Strategy in the Mid-Century", China has acted very quickly.
Reuters reported that on December 3, 2021, China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice to officially issue the "14th Five-Year Plan for Industrial Green Development" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"). Intensity has dropped significantly, energy efficiency has steadily improved, resource utilization has improved significantly, and the green manufacturing system has become increasingly perfect.
The "Plan" also proposes that by 2025, China's industrial structure and production methods will achieve remarkable results in green and low-carbon transformation, green and low-carbon technology and equipment will be widely used, energy and resource utilization efficiency will be greatly improved, and the level of green manufacturing will be improved in an all-round way. A solid foundation has been laid for carbon peaking in the field.
Independent innovation, leading the world
In order to better promote energy conservation and emission reduction, China has continuously accelerated the R&D and promotion of technologies in related fields and enhanced its capability of independent innovation.
Singapore's "Lianhe Zaobao" noted that Tsinghua University will establish a carbon neutrality research institute at the end of 2021.
The institute will focus on carbon neutrality to build a technology innovation center, a high-end think tank strategic center, a high-level talent training base and a platform for cooperation and communication.
He Kebin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and dean of the Carbon Neutral Research Institute of Tsinghua University, revealed that the institute will concentrate its advantageous resources to speed up research and break through the key core technologies in the carbon neutral field.
The newspaper pointed out that as of September 2021, Northwestern University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Fujian Normal University and many other Chinese universities have also established research institutions related to carbon neutrality.
The BBC pays particular attention to the rapid rise of new energy vehicles in China.
The report said that by 2035, almost all new cars sold in China will be pure electric or hybrid new energy vehicles, according to research forecasts by the Chinese government and representatives of the auto industry.
The BBC points out that transport burns fuel and produces about a quarter of carbon emissions, with road vehicles being the biggest emitters.
In this context, China's vigorous development of new energy vehicles will greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The British "Morning Star" believes that China is currently developing "zero carbon technology" very fast, and China is also in a leading position in related technology fields.
China's progress in energy conservation and emission reduction provides useful inspiration for other countries to promote green development, and China's contribution has been widely recognized by the international community.
Khalid Akram, executive director of the Pakistan Center for Global Strategic Studies, said in a commentary that China continues to lead the world in jointly addressing climate change and other issues, and China's many measures are worth learning from other countries.
Japan's "Nikkei Asian Review" published an article saying that in recent years, China's successive announcements have demonstrated China's ambition and determination to actively address climate change and take a green and low-carbon development path, which has greatly boosted global climate governance. confidence.