On the morning of September 7, themed “Transformative Development, Green Future”, the 2024 Global Energy Transition Conference kicked off at the Future Science City in Changping District, Beijing. Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment, and Yin Yong, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Mayor of Beijing, attended and addressed the opening ceremony.

Huang stated that since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, we have prioritized improving and adjusting the energy mix as a key measure to keep skies blue and address climate change. We have expedited the development of a clean, low-carbon, efficient, and safe energy system and achieved significant progress. Moving forward, we will thoroughly implement Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Conservation and leverage the ecological conservation initiative to guide, optimize, and drive green and low-carbon development. The aim is to ensure that high-standard ecological protection supports high-quality economic growth, thus ultimately building China into a beautiful country where humanity and nature coexist in harmony. Efforts will be made to cultivate green productivity. This includes improving the industrial structure, the energy mix, and the composition of the transportation sector, engaging in collaborative innovations to reduce pollution and carbon emissions, and promoting the research, development, and application of green and low-carbon technologies, thereby fostering sustainable and healthy growth of the environmental protection industry. In addressing climate change, we will further develop the carbon market, steadily expand industry coverage, diversify trading products and methods, and improve the national trading platform for China Certified Emission Reduction (CCER). In addition, we are committed to participating in global climate governance by advancing international cooperation and deepening South-South cooperation on climate change. Experts and scholars are encouraged to share their insights, contributing more wisdom and strength toward building a beautiful China and a clean, beautiful world.

Yin highlighted Beijing’s commitment to implementing Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Conservation and a new energy security strategy. In recent years, the city has been advancing comprehensive green energy transition and cultivating new drivers for green development, maintaining the highest energy utilization efficiency among provincial-level jurisdictions in China. Looking ahead, to achieve the “dual carbon” goals, we will focus on both supply-side and demand-side strategies, including optimizing the energy mix, enhancing technology-driven development, modernizing energy governance, and accelerating the building of a clean, low-carbon, safe, and efficient new energy system. It is imperative to deepen the energy consumption reform by promoting nationwide energy-saving actions, developing green and prefabricated buildings, and continuously reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions in traditional industries. Advancing the energy supply reform is also crucial, which includes developing renewable energy, scaling up green electricity transmission to Beijing, and enhancing energy peak-shaving capabilities to ensure energy security for the capital. We will foster an energy technology reform by utilizing innovative platforms like the “Energy Valley” in Future Science City to tackle challenges in low-carbon and zero-carbon technical equipment and advance the development of advanced energy industries. Finally, efforts will focus on strengthening energy system reform by establishing local standards for new power systems and improving the national trading platform for CCER to provide institutional support for energy transition.

Long Guoqiang, Vice-President of the Development Research Center of the State Council, Li Jinfa, Director of the China Geological Survey, and Li Junhua, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, delivered speeches. This conference features a plenary session, nine thematic forums, a closing session & the opening ceremony of the Future Science City Energy Week, an exhibition of technological achievements, and a series of activities of the Future Science City Energy Week.

Zeng Jin, Secretary General of the People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, attended the event.

(Written by Yang Qi)