
On September 3, the 2021 China International Trade in Services Exhibition Hall was officially opened to the public. The visual, dynamic and three-dimensional "Open Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei" exhibition area attracts visitors to participate in the interactive experience, learn about the achievements of the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei, and visit the exhibits of enterprises in the three places. The picture shows the "Open Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei" exhibition area. (Photo by our reporter Chen Fei)
From September 2 to 7, the 2021 China International Service Trade Fair will be held in Beijing. Focusing on the theme of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, this session of the Service Trade Fair held many events such as the 2021 Green Development International Summit Forum, 2021 China Carbon Neutral Economic Development Forum, and 2021 Global Green Economic Wealth Forum. In these forums, topics related to "dual carbon" have become the focus of heated discussions.
Key word one: a vast market of 300 billion yuan
In the context of "dual carbon", China is facing new development opportunities. This is a consensus.
On September 6, the 2021 Global Green Economy Fortune Forum kicked off. Sha Zukang, former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, Honorary President of the International Green Economy Association, and Chairman of the Forum, pointed out in his speech that “carbon neutrality” is for China, despite its existence There are many challenges such as adjusting and optimizing the industrial structure and energy structure, vigorously developing new energy, and building a national carbon emission trading market, but these fields also contain many new opportunities, which will release more new momentum for economic growth.
At the 2021 China Carbon Neutral Economic Development Forum held on September 5, Zhang Shaogang, vice chairman of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that the national carbon trading market will be a vast blue ocean.
Zhang Shaogang believes that the "dual carbon" goal is a big test facing China's economic transformation and development. From the perspective of development status, China’s secondary industry accounts for a relatively high proportion. The four major sectors of industry, energy, construction, and transportation account for about 90% of the total domestic carbon emissions. The pressure of the production and living system to transition to a green and low-carbon system is very high. Big. But he also said that from the perspective of development prospects, about 136 trillion yuan of investment will be needed to achieve carbon neutrality in 2060. In addition to government funding, a large amount of social capital needs to be introduced and the market is more dependent on its role. The national carbon trading market is expected to reach 300 billion yuan, which is undoubtedly a vast blue ocean.
"Enterprises are emitters of greenhouse gases, as well as innovators and providers of climate-friendly solutions. They have a lot to do in promoting the overall green transformation of economic and social development." Zhang Shaogang suggested that from the top-level design, strengthen confidence in low-carbon development strategies and strengthen the foundation Research, promote carbon-neutral technology innovation, promote the coordinated progress of the industrial chain, and form a joint force that promotes low-carbon transformation and development.
Key word two: 30 years of arduous tasks
It is both an opportunity and a challenge. China's task of achieving "dual carbon" is undoubtedly very arduous.
At the opening ceremony of the 2021 Global Green Economy Fortune Forum held during the Service Trade Fair, Li Yizhong, former minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and chairman of the China Federation of Industrial Economics, pointed out in a keynote speech that China’s production and consumption activities will generate 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide in 2019. It accounts for 30% of the global total. "China is a developing country, the carbon emission reduction situation is severe and the task is arduous." Li Yizhong believes that China has only 30 years from carbon peak to carbon neutrality, which is less than the 40-50 year cycle of developed countries, and the difficulty is increasing.
Liu Yanhua, director of the National Committee of Experts on Climate Change and former vice minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that Western countries will take 200 years to achieve carbon peaks, and China will achieve this goal in 2030, and time is very tight. In addition, from peaking to carbon neutrality, the United States has 43 years from 2007 to 2050, the EU has 71 years, and China has only 30 years.
Liu Yanhua analyzed that China’s total carbon emissions are large, and with the development of industrialization, emissions are still gradually increasing. "There is a saying that Chuan Xiaohao turns around, but it takes hard work and huge kinetic energy to realize such a large total." Liu Yanhua said. In addition, many industries that are located at the low end of the industrial chain and are resource-based and high-energy-consuming are still dominant. Transformation during the climbing stage of industrial development is tantamount to a complete renewal.
At the China Carbon Neutral Economic Development Forum 2021, He Kebin, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a professor at the School of Environment of Tsinghua University, also pointed out that my country faces huge challenges in achieving "dual carbon". "The first is my country's high-carbon energy structure. In 2019, the main national energy structure, fossil energy accounted for 50% to 85%, and my country's about 85%. The second is my country's high-carbon industrial structure. Cement, steel, petrochemical, etc. Energy-consuming industries account for a relatively high proportion of the industry." He Kebin said.
At the same time, my country's industrialization and urbanization are still progressing, and carbon reduction is difficult to achieve easily. "my country's commitment to achieve the time from carbon peak to carbon neutrality is far shorter than the time taken by developed countries. The time is short, the task is heavy, and the challenge is very big." He Kebin said bluntly.
Keyword 3: "Five Carbons Simultaneously" Overcome Difficulties
Faced with the arduous challenge of achieving the "dual carbon" task, industry insiders have suggested that a variety of measures can be taken to overcome the difficulties.
He Kebin proposed the "five carbon simultaneously" model. The first is to increase resource efficiency and reduce carbon. Under the same economic goal, energy demand will be minimized. At the current consumption level, every 1% reduction in energy consumption can reduce more than 100 million tons of carbon dioxide. The second is to reduce carbon in the energy structure and substantially increase the proportion of non-fossil energy. The third is to store carbon in geological space, and part of the carbon dioxide is solved through carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS). The fourth is carbon sequestration in the ecosystem. Through various means, enhance the carbon sink capacity of the ecosystem. Fifth, the market mechanism melts carbon. Promote the more reasonable and effective application of various technologies through market mechanisms.
Li Yizhong said that the goal of carbon emission reduction is mainly to control and improve production and consumption activities, adjust and optimize the energy structure, industrial structure and product structure, vigorously develop non-fossil energy, and reduce the use of fossil energy.
Liu Yanhua believes that we must first change the concept of development and use the concepts of innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing to achieve the "dual carbon" goal; secondly, we must carry out structural adjustments, focusing on improving efficiency, especially considering the carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP. Control; Once again, we must adjust the industrial structure and shift to the high end of the value chain.
Du Xiangwan, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, pointed out at the 2021 Green Development International Summit that solid waste has a huge potential for utilization and can form multiple industrial chains. Some countries have reduced carbon emissions through the operation of "waste-free cities". For example, Sweden uses the recycling system to make the waste utilization rate reach 99%. After every 4 tons of waste is reused, it can provide the energy equivalent to 1 ton of oil.