China offers model for growth while going green, says Al Jaber
Dr Sultan Al Jaber, President-designate of the Cop28 summit, has said China provides a strong model of how a country can continue to grow while tackling the green energy transition.
Dr Al Jaber, who has completed a two-day trip to China, said the country had significant potential to promote sustainable low- carbon economic growth.
“Given the size of China’s economy and the scale of its development of renewable energy and decarbonisation technology, China provides a good model for sustainable economic growth and the global energy transition,” said Dr Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology and Special Envoy for Climate Change.
“Over the past five years alone, China has been responsible for adding more than 40 per cent of the world’s new solar and wind power capacity and has set a very ambitious target of deploying 1,200 gigawatts of renewable capacity by the end of this decade.”
During his visit, Dr Al Jaber held meetings with senior Chinese officials, including Ding Xuexiang, First Vice Premier of China; Zhao Chenxin, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission agency; Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment; Xie Zhenhua, Special Envoy for Climate Change; and Zhang Jianhua, director of the National Energy Administration.
Building on the strength of the UAE-China strategic partnership, discussions focused on partnerships around practical, concrete efforts in the run-up to Cop28 starting in Dubai on November 30, to achieve climate progress.
He also met and addressed students at Tsinghua University Institute for Carbon Neutrality, highlighting China’s leadership in renewable energy development, and spoke about its capacity to enhance South-South co-operation on climate action.
Dr Al Jaber, who is also managing director and group chief executive of Adnoc and chairman of Masdar, said the UAE and China were committed to diversifying their energy mix and pursuing pragmatic solutions to climate change.
“The partnership between the UAE and China will be a key asset to the Cop28 presidency as we seek innovative solutions to boost industrial decarbonisation, expand access to clean technologies, and ensure a just energy transition,” he said.
Dr Al Jaber said countries needed to “explore every available option” to meet decarbonisation goals.
“It is not renewables or hydrogen or nuclear or carbon capture or only using the least carbon-intensive oil and gas. It is all of the above, plus new technologies yet to be invented, commercialised and deployed,” he said.