Interview: China's energy transition to help improve economic performance, says IRENA head

GENEVA, July 22 (Xinhua) -- China's energy transition will help improve its economic performance and achieve a steadier growth pattern, the head of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has said.

Bullish on China's economic prospects, Director-General of the IRENA Francesco La Camera said in a recent interview that the Chinese economy "has been steadily growing in the first six months of the year."

The Chinese government has been very wise in the sense that it is "trying to do the best to get COVID under control, but it has also allowed them (the factories) to produce ... so they have been able to export," said the chief of the IRENA, an intergovernmental organization that supports countries in their transition to a sustainable energy future.

The latest data from China's National Bureau of Statistics showed that the country's GDP secured positive growth in the second quarter and expanded 2.5 percent year on year in the first half of the year.

Apart from that, in the first half of this year, China's value-added industrial output went up 3.4 percent, fixed-asset investment jumped 6.1 percent, and foreign goods trade shot up 9.4 percent.

Stressing the growth was made "in this very critical situation" amid the pandemic and the Ukraine crisis, La Camera forecast China's energy transition could further accelerate its growth.

"Energy transition is taking place in China as in every other part of the world," said the IRENA chief. "Naturally, China is one of the main actors in the energy transition."

"Renewables are the most effective way to produce electricity. They are the most competitive way. Absolutely, from an economic point of view ... renewables give more contribution to the GDP of the country," La Camera explained.