With the approach of the Climate Conference, COP26, which is to be held in Glasgow from October 31, China insists on the “green turn” that it intends to give to the “new silk roads”, the gigantic investment program that it co-finances throughout the world. The most spectacular sign of this development: the announcement made by President Xi Jinping on September 23 that Beijing would stop funding the construction of new coal-fired power plants abroad.
The Chinese have since clarified this message on several occasions. During a video conference held with energy ministers whose countries participate in the Belt and Road initiative, the official name of this program, Vice Premier Han Zheng called , Monday, October 18, the different countries “Join in a green and low carbon transition in the energy sector”. He also wished “Deepen cooperation” in some areas “Including nuclear”. An energy cited twice in the press release. On October 21, Beijing organized in Lianyungang, in Jiangsu province, a seminar with about fifteen foreign diplomats (from Egypt, Pakistan, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Thailand , Belarus, among others) highlighting “good practices”.
On Sunday, October 24, China completed its green strategy by publishing an official document in which it pledges to gradually increase its share of non-fossil energy consumption “About 20% by 2025, about 30% in 2030 and more than 80% in 2060”. “Coal consumption will be reduced at an accelerated rate” specifies the document. In addition, by 2025, carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will be reduced by 18% compared to 2020 and by 2030, they will have decreased by more than 65% compared to 2005.
Controversial subjects
This support for renewable energies is taking shape in Kazakhstan, where the Chinese public group State Power Investment inaugurated in June a 100 megawatt (MW) wind farm: forty wind turbines that supply the equivalent of the consumption of one million households and allow reduce the country’s coal consumption. In Pakistan, the Chinese Zonergy is developing a 9,000 MW photovoltaic project over no less than 2,000 hectares. “The largest solar farm in the world” is far from complete but is said to already provide electricity to 1.5 million people.
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