Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, the COP28 President-Designate, has returned from a two-day trip to China, where he met with Ding Xuexiang, the First Vice Premier of China; Vice Chairman of the NDRC, Zhao Chenxin; Minister of Environment and Ecology HE Huang Runqiu; Special Envoy for Climate Change, Xie Zhenhua; and the Director of the National Energy Administration, Dr. Zhang Jianhua. Dr. Al Jaber also met with students and spoke to them at the prestigious Tsinghua University Institute for Carbon Neutrality. He talked about China’s unique ability to improve South-South cooperation on climate action and its leadership in the development of renewable energy.
In the lead-up to COP28, discussions focused on partnerships centered on practical, concrete efforts to help achieve transformational climate progress, building on the UAE-China strategic partnership’s strength. China has enormous potential to promote sustainable, low-carbon economic growth due to its size and leadership position in the advancement of clean technologies.
“Given the size of China’s economy and the size of its improvement of environmentally friendly power and decarbonization innovation, China gives a decent model to manageable monetary development and the worldwide energy change. China has added more than 40% of the world’s new solar and wind power capacity in the last five years alone, and it has set a very ambitious goal of installing 1,200 gigawatts of renewable capacity by the end of this decade.
Dr. Al Jaber emphasized that China and the United Arab Emirates were both committed to pursuing practical solutions to the climate crisis and diversifying their energy mix. He added, “The organization between the UAE and China will be a critical resource for the COP28 Administration as we look for imaginative answers for support modern decarbonization, grow admittance to clean innovations, and guarantee a fair energy progress.”
Dr. Al Jaber also addressed a crowd at the Tsinghua University Institute for Carbon Neutrality, which focuses on energy, sustainability, and climate-related fields. He also participated in a private sector roundtable with entrepreneurs in the clean technology sector. The COP28 President-Designate stated that countries will require a variety of technology solutions to meet their decarbonization goals, as the world must reduce emissions by 43% by 2030 to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting temperature rise to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels.
“Decarbonization technology must be widely adopted and developed before we can meet our climate goals. We must investigate each and every option. Renewables, hydrogen, nuclear, carbon capture, and only the use of the least carbon-intensive oil and gas are not the solutions. He added, “It is all of the above, in addition to new technologies that have yet to be developed, commercialized, and put into use.”
“China is already making significant contributions to enhance South-South climate action as a valued partner to emerging market economies and a global leader. China’s help will be basic as far as we’re concerned to convey down to earth, functional activity headed for COP28 and then some.”
Dr. Al Jaber continued to advocate for investment in industrial decarbonization during his meeting with Chinese business and industrial leaders. He stated, “The industries that run the world are steel, cement, and aluminum, like manufacturing or energy.” They are a necessity for our daily lives. However, we must locate a means of increasing their sustainability. Emissions must be reduced, not advanced. We must collaborate with industry leaders to recruit them as partners and find solutions together.
Dr Al Jaber likewise hailed the strength of the organization between the UAE and China as a model of collaboration toward feasible, low-carbon development and flourishing, “Organizations will be vital to making COP28 a COP of Activity, and a COP of fortitude, solidarity and effect. To achieve the Paris goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels, China and all Parties must sit at the table. To rekindle progress, a significant shift in course and a significant effort are required. Additionally, he stated, “I look forward to working with China to deliver a successful COP28.”
