Interview: China's green growth leads global green transition, says Ethiopian expert

ADDIS ABABA, March 12 (Xinhua) -- China's keen commitment to and successes in green development serve as an instructive model in promoting global green transition, said an Ethiopian expert.

China's green energy targets are driving the global energy transition momentum, eventually mitigating the adverse effects of climate change, Costantinos Bt. Costantinos, a professor of public policy at Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Noting the urgent need to exert concerted efforts toward the development of clean energy alternatives on a global scale, the expert commended China's leading role and its extensive efforts to fast-track its transition to clean energy.

"Definitely, there is going to be a transition, and the one country that is ready to push this development and retiring fossil fuels and coming into alternative green forms of energy is China. I see the blueprint in the Chinese economic development and the efforts that are being undertaken," said Costantinos.

The United Nations recommended countries accelerate the transition to an affordable, reliable and sustainable energy system by investing in renewable energy resources, prioritizing energy-efficient practices, and adopting clean energy technologies and infrastructure.

"The drive that I see (in China's push for clean energy development) is what an intelligent state would do in terms of a very deliberate way of transitioning from fossil fuels to green energy. This will go a long way in meeting the targets that the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has put in place," he said.

Chinese enterprises and startups are currently making great steps in delivering clean energy technologies to the world, such as new energy vehicles and affordable solar panels, said the expert.

"China's leadership in electric vehicles will have a lot of contribution to green development," he said.

Costantinos also underscored China's ever-growing and leading role as a positive impetus in realizing the global quest for a low-carbon, resilient and sustainable future.

"More importantly, China, with a population of 1.4 billion, is creating a huge market for renewable energies globally, which means that now solar panels become cheaper as they are being produced in masses, and electric vehicles have become a new vision, especially in countries like Ethiopia where we have abundant electricity potential," he said.

The expert called on the international community, particularly countries in the Global South, to emulate China's constructive experience in energy transition in particular and its sustainable development endeavors in general.

"All these (China's successes) are going to change the world economy in a big way, and I am sure the Global South will be beneficiaries in this," he said.