Interview: China brings "hope" for fighting climate change with efforts to develop renewable energy: official

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov. 8 (Xinhua) -- China's great efforts to develop renewable energy to replace fossil fuels has been a "story of hope" in fighting climate change, an official and environmentalist has told Xinhua in an interview.

"China for us is a good example of the types of investment that need to be made. China is showing the world hope," said Kevin Conrad, executive director of the Coalition for Rainforest Nations, at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP27) being held in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm el-Sheikh.

He was referring to the efforts made by China to increase the production of renewable energy in a bid to reduce the use of fossil fuels and save forests.

Conrad believes that developing renewable energy is one of the major solutions to stop global warming. "Renewable energy is becoming cheaper than other sources and it has less environmental damage, but we need to make it happen faster," he said.

China has made remarkable progress toward its goals of reaching peak carbon emissions before 2030 and carbon neutralization before 2060, said China's Special Envoy for Climate Change Xie Zhenhua on Sunday while attending a side event at the COP27 on introducing China's green actions to tackle climate change.

Xie said China has actively implemented the Paris Agreement, and further enhanced its nationally determined contribution, aiming to reach carbon peak and achieve carbon neutralization in a strong, orderly and effective manner.

According to preliminary calculations, the amount of carbon dioxide emissions China produces per unit of GDP in 2021 is 3.8 percent lower than that in 2020 and 50.8 percent lower than in 2005, he noted.

"(We should) bring down fossil fuels by developing renewable energy. China is doing the first step and now we need to do the second step," Conrad said.

"That's where you find hope. China is leading. They're showing that investing in renewable energy works. And now the challenge is to continue to scale it up, so they can scale down the fossil fuels," Conrad added.

During a meeting with the Chinese delegation to the COP27 on Tuesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also praised China's pragmatic actions in accelerating green transformation and China's efforts to develop renewable energy.

At the Papua New Guinea pavilion, a huge slogan on the wall - "We need 100 billion (U.S. dollars) annually to save our rainforests" - attracted great attention.

Conrad, also director of the pavilion, told Xinhua that the slogan aims to mock the failure of developed countries to deliver the 100 billion dollars in climate finance promised to developing countries back in 2009.

"In 2022, they still haven't delivered," Conrad said. "What we are trying to say is that 100 billion dollars are not enough only for protecting the rainforests. We need more than that."

He emphasized the significance of protecting rainforests in the global battle against imminent global warming. "There's more carbon in the rainforests. If we lose rainforests, even if we stop all the carbon emissions, we still lose (the climate battle)," he said.

Conrad said China has been very helpful to the Coalition for Rainforest Nations by sending experts years ago to help it protect rainforests.