The 131st Canton Fair is set to open this April, and preparatory work for the Fair is well underway. “Since establishing the New Energy section at the 116th Canton Fair, the development of China’s new energy industry is moving at breakneck speed,” Alan Liu, Deputy Director General of the Foreign Affairs Office of the Canton Fair, tells the journalist. As China attaches significant importance to clean energy development, unprecedented opportunities are provided for enterprises at home and abroad.
Energy is fundamental for human survival and development. In the early days of the founding of the PRC, the industry developed slowly due to insufficient energy productivity and low production levels. At that time, China needed to import basic commodities for lighting in daily life and furnace coke used in the iron and steel industry.
With rapid development over 70 years, China has grown into the largest energy producer across the globe. From importing energy products to the “dual carbon,” goal, from a country short of oil to a “world hydropower kingdom”, the Canton Fair has witnessed the extraordinary course of China’s energy industry transition.
To reach climate and sustainable development goals, China proposed the targets of peak carbon by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060 and made it clear that during the 14th Five Year Plan period, a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system would be built to control the total amount of fossil fuel used and shift to renewable energy. It has become a consensus among Chinese energy companies to focus on advanced technologies and innovation capabilities.
The recent games in Beijing have also become a vivid sample of China’s transition toward carbon neutrality. A series of green power supply projects, represented by the Zhangbei VSC-HVDC project, ensured these games were the first to be 100 percent supplied by green power. It is expected to reduce standard coal burning by 128,000 tons and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 320,000 tons. At night, the glittering “Ice Ribbon” has left a deep impression on the global audience.
Alan Liu says, the Canton Fair will encourage and attract more green enterprises to participate, promote the full-scale green development of the exhibition, create a new model of a zero-carbon exhibition hall, set a green benchmark in the exhibition industry, and serve the national “dual carbon” strategy.