Behind the cooperation between China and the United States in the field of climate change is a new energy revolution that will determine the future

According to Xinhua News Agency, at the high-level strategic dialogue between China and the United States held in Anchorage, Alaska on March 18-19 local time, although there were differences on some issues, both sides agreed to strengthen dialogue and cooperation in the field of climate change and establish a joint working group on climate change between China and the United States.

At the same time, the 5th Ministerial Conference on Climate Action, held on March 23, was attended online by China's Special Envoy for Climate Change, Xie Zhenhua, and former US Secretary of State John Kerry, who held the same position.

Xie Zhenhua stated at the meeting that he welcomes the United States to return to the Paris Agreement and looks forward to the United States catching up and demonstrating leadership, according to the website of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment

Why did China and the United States reach a consensus on strengthening dialogue and cooperation in the field of climate change, despite facing differences on some issues? Does this mean that a global new energy revolution is beginning? Is there any correlation between the recent news of technology companies' "car making" appearing frequently in the media and the goals of "2030 carbon peak" and "2060 carbon neutrality" proposed by the Chinese government?

In response to these issues, Red Star News interviewed Professor Zhou Weisheng, a Japanese overseas Chinese energy and environmental protection expert, director of the Sustainable Development Research Center at Ritsumeikan University, and dean of the International 3E Research Institute.

Both China and the United States have responsibilities and capabilities in addressing climate change

The US Presidential Climate Envoy is a newly established position after Biden took office, reporting directly to the President. The first envoy was former Secretary of State John Kerry. At the same time, Liu Youbin, spokesperson for the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, stated at a press conference on February 25th that with the approval of the central government, Comrade Jie Zhenhua has been appointed as China's special envoy for climate change affairs. This move by both China and the United States is considered to send a signal to the world: both sides have released positive signals in addressing global climate change.

Why did China and the United States reach a consensus on strengthening dialogue and cooperation in the field of climate change at the high-level strategic dialogue held in Anchorage? Professor Zhou Weisheng, who has long studied international cooperation on climate change, analyzed that "carbon emissions are closely related to every country in the world and are an urgent and long-term goal that everyone must address. China is currently the largest carbon emitter and second largest economy in the world, while the United States is currently the largest country and largest economy in terms of cumulative emissions. Both sides have responsibilities and certain capabilities to address climate change issues

The Ministerial Conference on Climate Action was jointly initiated by China, the European Union, and Canada in 2017, according to the website of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment

In Zhou Weisheng's view, in the face of the global crisis of climate change, China and the United States are a climate community that shares responsibilities and benefits. Both countries must cooperate in their own interests and global interests. He explained, "In the framework of climate cooperation, the United States is now also the first responsible party. Its cumulative total is the world's largest, and its per capita emissions are much higher than China's. The carbon dioxide emitted during the first industrial revolution more than 200 years ago has not disappeared, and it is still a greenhouse gas in the atmosphere. The United States must take responsibility for this. In addition, we must also see that China's current carbon emissions account for 28% of the global carbon emissions, and there is a basis for cooperation between China and the United States on how to reduce carbon emissions as an urgent task.

Kerry said that the United States "hopes" to cooperate with China to address climate change. Reuters report screenshot

When talking about the prospects for cooperation between China and the United States in addressing global climate change, Zhou Weisheng said, "With both sides expressing their attitudes, further consultations are needed on how the two countries can cooperate on this issue. The partisan struggle in the United States has become an important constraining factor. The Democratic Party is relatively active in addressing climate change, but when the Republican Party came to power, the United States became passive. When the Kyoto Protocol was formulated at COP3 in 1997, the United States was governed by the Democratic Party and signed it. But later, after the Republican Party came to power, it became the first country to withdraw. The same goes for the Paris Agreement. When the Obama administration was in power, the United States joined the Paris Agreement. As soon as Trump came to power, the United States announced its withdrawal. Now, Biden... On stage, the United States immediately joined the Paris Agreement The United States has abandoned its international commitments as a country to the world due to domestic reasons such as the alternation of ruling parties.

How can China achieve carbon neutrality with the goal of "zero emissions"?

At this year's Two Sessions, carbon peak and carbon neutrality were included for the first time in the government work report and became hot topics of discussion among representatives and committee members. Carbon peak "refers to China's commitment to stop the growth of carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and gradually reduce them after reaching the peak. Carbon neutrality "refers to the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions directly or indirectly generated by enterprises, groups, or individuals over a certain period of time, and then offsetting their own carbon dioxide emissions through plant afforestation, energy conservation and emission reduction, achieving" zero carbon dioxide emissions ".

Screenshot of Xinhua News Agency's "2060 Carbon Neutrality Roadmap" Report

When talking about the goals of "peaking carbon emissions by 2030" and "achieving carbon neutrality by 2060", Zhou Weisheng said, "About 60% of our primary energy now comes from coal, and about 90% of our carbon dioxide emissions come from coal. Before suitable coal alternatives are found, what can we use to replace coal as the basic energy and fuel for basic load power? This involves energy and environmental security, socio-economic development, and is related to the fundamental interests and future of the country. It must be comprehensively considered from the short and long term, domestic and global, socio-economic and technological systems

How will China achieve its goal of zero carbon neutrality in the next 40 years? Zhou Weisheng gave his own advice. He said, "Firstly, we need to strengthen energy-saving technologies and reduce energy consumption. Currently, China's energy consumption per 1000 US dollars of GDP is more than three times that of Japan, and there is still considerable potential for energy conservation, especially in terms of system energy conservation. We need to design and promote energy-saving and emission reduction mechanisms from the perspective of system and benefit distribution. Secondly, we need to improve industrial institutions. The more high energy consuming industries there are, the greater the energy consumption per 1000 US dollars of GDP, and the more carbon dioxide emissions they emit. In the post pandemic era, the role of the digital economy (virtual economy) will become increasingly important. The digital economy is not only necessary for promoting sustainable social and economic development, but also an important means of reducing carbon dioxide emissions

In addition, Zhou Weisheng also suggested, "Do not simply pursue the speed and scale of economic development, but improve the social structure and change people's lifestyles within a certain economic aggregate, which can also to some extent control carbon dioxide emissions. Economic growth is the biggest reason for the increase in carbon dioxide

Assisting carbon neutrality: it is relatively easy for new energy vehicles to replace fuel vehicles

In the past two years, there has been a wave of manufacturing new energy vehicles in China. The Internet giants represented by Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu are also continuously engaged in a new round of car building in different forms. Xiaomi Technology Chairman Lei Jun also announced at the spring new product launch on March 30th that he will personally establish a wholly-owned intelligent electric vehicle subsidiary and invest $10 billion in the next decade.

Recently, Xiaomi's announcement of car manufacturing has sparked heated discussions, according to online sources

Is there a correlation between the announcement of their "car manufacturing plans" by large domestic enterprises and carbon neutrality policies? When it comes to this issue, Zhou Weisheng said, "Before the media reported on carbon neutrality related topics, new energy vehicles had already become a global trend, but it was originally from the perspective of energy security and reducing urban pollution. After the carbon neutrality goals of major countries came out, the demand for new energy vehicles increased. To achieve carbon neutrality goals, the use of fuel vehicles would be banned relatively early. Because existing coal energy is difficult to replace, but new energy vehicles are relatively easy to replace fuel vehicles

According to reports, since 2016, eight European countries have successively proposed bans on the sale of gasoline vehicles. At that time, it was still in the stage of intention, until substantial changes began in 2020. Some countries have expressed their opinions through various forms such as bills, national planning documents, and strategic plans for transportation departments.

On January 28th of this year, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga stated at the 204th regular session of the Diet that "by 2035, 100% of new cars sold in Japan will be electric vehicles." Zhou Weisheng introduced, "Japanese companies have strategic foresight on this issue. Toyota's hydrogen technology patents account for more than 50% of the world's total

The prospect of hydrogen energy is broad: coal to hydrogen production is an important direction for clean utilization of coal

In addition, Zhou Weisheng stated that in terms of theory, quantity, and price, new energy sources such as photovoltaics and wind power can replace coal. However, new energy sources have instability, uneven distribution, and the problem of supply-demand mismatch. From the limitations of fossil fuel storage capacity, economy, and other technologies, fossil fuels will continue to play a significant role in China's energy structure at least until 2030 and 2060. To achieve carbon neutrality, China needs to clean up coal, and hydrogen production is an important direction.

On March 18, 2021, the China Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality Achievement Release and Seminar was held in Beijing

According to Zhou Weisheng, China is the world's largest producer of hydrogen, mainly from coal production. During the process of coal turning into hydrogen, carbon dioxide is also produced. These carbon dioxide can be buried underground or stored at the bottom of the sea. Zhou Weisheng told reporters that China is currently using carbon dioxide to increase oil production domestically. After extracting oil for a period of time, the production inside the oil layer also decreases. Squeezing carbon dioxide into underground oil layers can increase oil production. This has been widely used in the United States as a way to sequester carbon dioxide underground.

In addition, Zhou Weisheng also suggested using electricity generated by new energy sources such as sunlight in remote areas to electrolyze water and produce hydrogen gas. Liquid hydrogen can be transported, just like petroleum. Hydrogen is an important medium that can reconcile the drawbacks of new energy and coal, and the future prospects of hydrogen energy may be relatively broad.

Japan has also been actively exploring the field of "green hydrogen energy". According to Nikkei News, the Fukushima Hydrogen Energy Research Institute in Japan officially opened in March 2020. This project is jointly developed by Toshiba, Northeast Electric Power, and the Japan New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). It installs a 10MW electrolytic cell equipment, supplies power through a 20MW photovoltaic array, and connects a renewable energy source from the grid as a backup power source. This electrolytic cell equipment can produce up to 100kg of green hydrogen gas per hour.

The main purpose of this project is to conduct experiments and provide experience, data, etc. for the large-scale application of renewable energy hydrogen production. The produced hydrogen will be used for hydrogen fuel buses, which were originally planned to serve the Tokyo Olympics.

Will hydrogen be as important as oil today in 30 years?

In 1709, an English metalworker named Abraham Darby discovered how to use coal to "improve iron smelting efficiency". The coal industry helped Britain win comprehensively in the first industrial revolution.

In 1859, oil was discovered in the western part of Pennsylvania, United States. After nearly a century of changes, the world energy landscape has shifted from the coal era to the oil era. The oil industry has helped the United States become the world's leading economic power.

Every energy revolution brings new development opportunities and leads to a redistribution of global benefits. Nowadays, driven by factors such as climate change, countries have successively proposed the goal of net zero emissions, accelerating the transition of global energy structure from the oil age to renewable energy, and human civilization will also shift from fossil fuel civilization to renewable green energy civilization.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the map of green hydrogen refueling stations built by the Saudi government

Once countries achieve their carbon neutrality goals, it will be a devastating blow to traditional oil exporting countries. Perhaps seeing this unprecedented crisis, Saudi Arabia, which relies on its oil economy, is building an ecological city in the northwest desert region, using hydrogen energy generated from water, hence the name "Green Hydrogen".

At the same time, Saudi Arabia is building a $5 billion factory called Helios Green Fuels, which is entirely powered by solar and wind energy. After completion in 2025, this factory will become one of the largest green hydrogen manufacturing plants in the world. According to The Wall Street Journal, the CEO of the factory said in an interview, "In 30 years, hydrogen will be as important as oil is now