BEIJING: “Human beings cannot survive and develop without energy. To achieve green development, we must vigorously promote transformation of energy production and utilization method.”
Zhao Chenxin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner, said at a news conference on Thursday when China’s State Council Information Office released a white paper titled “China’s Green Development in the New Era.” China has been speeding up to shape a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system for the past 10 years, said Zhao, adding that the country has promoted continuous enhancement of energy security capabilities and substantial improvement of green and low-carbon level, providing important support to realize high-quality economic and social development. Firstly, China enhanced ability to guarantee energy supply. “We adhere to the bottom line of energy security and promote formation of an energy production system driven by coal, oil, gas, electricity, nuclear and renewable energy,” said Zhao.
“According to the data recently released by the National Bureau of Statistics and the National Energy Administration, the supply of raw coal, crude oil, natural gas, and electricity in China has grown steadily with high quality in recent years.” Zhao further mentioned that China has also developed renewable energy in the period.
“We continued to expand the scale of installed capacity of wind and photovoltaic power, which have gradually become the main body of newly installed capacity and power generation.” By the end of 2022, the installed capacity of wind and photovoltaic power generation across the country has exceeded 700 million kilowatts, ranking first in the world, said Zhao. The newly installed capacity of wind and photovoltaic accounted for 78 percent of the country’s total, and over 55 percent of China’s new power generation capacity was added that year, which is a very high proportion. Moreover, the country is focusing on improving the clean and efficient utilization of fossil energy, promoting the supply-side structural reform of the coal industry and green coal mining, as well as implementing ultra-low emission and energy-saving transformation of coal-fired power plants, said Zhao.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
