Experts at CERAWeek say renewables are winning in China

HOUSTON, March 16 (Xinhua) -- In China, "renewables are no doubt winning" as the country is on track to achieve its goal of carbon peaking by 2030, a Chinese scholar has said at the global energy forum CERAWeek.

A consensus on carbon neutrality has been reached in China where more and more people and firms are seeing the energy transition as "a huge opportunity," Lei Yang, a professor with the Energy Institute of Peking University, told a panel titled "China's Climate Pathways: Peak Emissions and Carbon Neutrality."

"The medium-to-long-term goals of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and reaching carbon neutrality by 2060 are also firmly and repeatedly confirmed by Beijing," CERAWeek organizer S&P Global said on the forum's website.

For China, developing its own renewable energy capacity is to help achieve energy security, Yang said. "The energy transition is in line with energy security in the long term."

During a one-to-one dialogue with Daniel Yergin, CERAWeek chair and vice president of S&P Global, Shell CEO Wael Sawan said: "Chinese gas demand is rebounding quickly as seen in the first two months of 2023."

There is a wide consensus across Asia that gas "plays a big role" in the energy transition, Paul Everingham, executive director of the Asia Natural Gas and Energy Association (ANGEA), told Xinhua at CERAWeek.

"We need to show that we can do green hydrogen in scale," said Mark Hutchinson, CEO for Fortescue Future Industries, one of Australia's biggest minerals firms. "And China has shown to the world that they are very good at delivering projects at scale."

Everingham lauded China for having a very broad and effective "portfolio of electricity generation assets ranging from coal to gas, to hydro to solar and wind and offshore wind."

"They're very diverse in their portfolio approach, and that's very smart and credible in terms of their impact globally on the transition and a kind of cleaner economy in the future," Everingham said.

"The energy transition requires collaboration and will bring countries together, and you can already see China working with other nations" in this field, said Everingham.

"There is much to be learned from other countries around the world," Yang said. "A communication platform such as CERAWeek is very helpful."