Actions and innovations strengthen our confidence in a low carbon future

As the Eight Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM8), and the Second Mission Innovation Ministerial (MI-2) were hosted in Beijing, WWF were among the organizers of a side event called ‘A Future Powered by Renewable Energy--Action and Innovation’. Here are some event highlights.

Despite the uncertainty created by Trump’s announced withdrawal from the Paris agreement, the governments, businesses, cities and NGOs at the event showed strong confidence in a clean, low-carbon future, and proposed a variety of innovative solutions.

Among these were Anna Lindstedt, Swedish Ambassador to China, who affirmed the constructive role of China in the Paris Agreement, also saying that Sweden and the European Union still hold a strong determination in fighting climate change.

Li Junfeng, a renowned expert in renewable energy sector in China, spoke of the country’s declining coal consumption since 2011 with a 6% drop during last year. Concluding also that new energy forms in China will mainly be renewable and non-fossil in the near future.

Wang Sicheng, Senior Researcher, Energy Research Institute, National Development and Reform Commission pointed to the fact that both the country and the local governments have made policies to strongly support renewable energy. In the "13th Five-Year" national energy planning China set the solar power target as high as 110GW by 2020. Of these 60GW is from distributed photovoltaic (PV) power generation.

Sir David King, formerly UK Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative on Climate Change, emphasized the importance of the Paris Agreement, and spoke of Mission Innovation (MI), an initiative jointly launched by 22 countries to provide opportunities for the private sector. He clarified that the purpose of MI is to launch more public investment in renewable energy and to reduce the risk of the private sector.

7 cases of commercialized low carbon innovations from China celebrated

During the event we also awarded five new Climate Solvers companies from China.

The awarded technologies and companies are:

- Intelligent Solar Tracking System Technology. Developed by: Huangshan Runsol New Energy

- Castor value chain productions. Developed by: Tianjin Castor Energy

- Winding Permanent-magnetic Coupling Variable Speed Drive in Motor System. Developed by: Jiangsu Magnet Valley Technology

- Intelligent Heating and Cooling Technology for Building. Developed by: Henan Runheng Energy Management

- Producing Cold-rolled Ribbed Steel Bar. Developed by: Anyang Heli Techtronic Metallurgy New Technology

If these companies reach their targeted market share by 2026, they could achieve more than 180 million tons of carbon dioxide emission reductions per year.

There were also two Climate Solver special awards to Yuedun Domes and Mobike, respectively.

During the side event, as one of the important results, WWF hosted a three-day exhibition in China National Convention Center. This exhibition showed several WWF Climate Solver awarded technologies and services.

All in all the side event restored our faith in the low-carbon future. We also expect to see more and more exciting actions and innovations from governments, cities, corporates, and enterprises all around the world for a future powered by renewable. Let’s meet up at CEM 9 in 2018.