On March 24–25, 2023, Ji Zou, CEO and President of Energy Foundation China, participated in an annual conference “Local Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality: Deepening and Breaking Through,” organized by the Specialized Committee for Energy Systems Engineering of the China Energy Research Society. The conference brought together leaders and experts from China’s ministries and institutions including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province, National Climate Change Expert Committee, Institute of Energy at Tsinghua University, Institutes of Science and Development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Over the course of the two-day event, conference participants engaged in in-depth exchanges on the transformational development of key fields and industries and specific local practices for achieving China’s dual carbon goals.

During the conference, Zou delivered a video speech focusing on new growth stories of local economy. His speech analyzed the relationship between China’s major goals to strengthen economic growth, energy security, and climate mitigation. Zou also emphasized the importance of inter-regional electricity sharing and mutual aid, and offered ideas and suggestions for the transition of major energy-consuming provinces in light of the development differences of various regions in realizing the carbon peaking and neutrality goals.

Zou noted the goals of the three strategies—economic growth, energy security, and climate mitigation—are highly consequential with energy transition being a major part of their intersection. Therefore, advancing energy transition will significantly promote the realization of the dual carbon goals. Furthermore, the proportion of value added of strategic emerging industries for China’s GDP and the GDP of its economically developed provinces and cities has kept growing year by year, and the economic drivers of developed regions have gradually shifted to strategic emerging industries, such as new energy, new materials, high-end equipment manufacturing, as well as energy saving and environmental protection industries. Zou also pointed out that given the tight balance between power supply and demand nationwide, it is necessary to realize inter-regional sharing and mutual aid of power resources, and to make efforts in enhancing the interconnection of the power grid and promoting the market mechanism for inter-regional power transfer. Zou also shared Energy Foundation China’s research data which show that carbon peaking is gaining momentum in various regions and expressed his confidence that China therefore should be on the track of realizing carbon peaking before 2030.

Finally, in view of different provincial conditions and their diverse transition priorities, Zou offered suggestions for key fields of low carbon transition in Inner Mongolia, Shanxi, Guangdong, Jiangsu, and Shandong based on the identification and conclusion of Energy Foundation China concerning their work for achieving the dual carbon goals.