China's First Monograph on Carbon Neutrality Research – The Road to China Carbon Neutrality Released in Beijing

How can carbon neutrality in 2060 be achieved? On July 15, the Road to China Carbon Neutrality, the first monograph of systematic research on China’s pathway towards carbon neutral, was launched at the Beijing Book Building. This book proposed for the first time a comprehensive plan and solution for achieving carbon neutrality via leveraging China’s Energy Interconnection as a primary platform for energy delivery and allocation. Taking innovative, systematic, scientific and practical approaches, the book aims to blaze a cost-effective and technically viable pathway for carbon neutrality with Chinese characteristics. 

 

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Wang Zhixuan, a member of the National Expert Committee on Climate Change and former full-time Vice Chairman of the China Electricity Council, attended the ceremony and delivered a speech. He said that systemic thinking and ‘one national strategy’ are the guiding principle for the Road to China Carbon Neutrality. Based on the actual situation of China's economy, society, energy and power development, the book sets energy and power transition as the core task. It puts forward two basic measures of clean replacement and electricity replacement. It also proposes the framework, key steps and measures for fostering a new power system with clean energy as the mainstay. The book offers important reference for all industries, especially the power sector, to make sector-specific and enterprise-level carbon-neutral pathway. It also serves as a good guide for readers to explore China's way forward towards low-carbon development.

At the ceremony, Wu Xuan, Secretary-General of the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO), said that GEIDCO had actively responded to Chinese President Xi's important calling for promoting carbon emissions peak and carbon neutrality, and released the Report on China’s CO2 Emission Peak before 2030 and Report on China’s Carbon Neutrality before 2060 this March. On top of these efforts, with more extensive and in-depth research on related economic and social aspects, GEIDCO has compiled this monograph on the Road to China Carbon Neutrality. This book is the first to propose ideas and solutions for China’s carbon neutrality with Energy Interconnection as the primary platform and fundamental guarantee. It originally outlines a scientific, systematic and feasible path to achieve carbon neutrality, achieving a leap from ideas to practical actions. The awareness and joint actions for carbon neutrality will be greatly enhanced.

The Road to China Carbon Neutrality innovatively proposes the fundamental way to achieve carbon emissions peak and carbon neutrality in China, namely, to build a clean energy-dominant, electric-centric and interconnected Chinese Energy Interconnection, to accelerate the ‘Two Replacements’ (clean replacement for energy production and electricity replacement for energy consumption), to achieve ‘two dominance’ ‘two decoupling’ (led by clean energy production and electric energy consumption; decoupling energy and power development from carbon emissions, and decoupling economic and social development from carbon emissions). It aims to help society end the dependence on fossil fuels and build a zero-carbon sustainable energy system with clean energy as the mainstay.

According to The Road to China Carbon Neutrality, based on China's advantages in power and energy equipment and engineering technologies, the path of achieving China's carbon-neutral energy interconnection should roll out extensive clean energy replacement as the core of decarbonization in energy production, deep electricity replacement as the core of decarbonization in terminal energy consumption, and use electrofuels and raw materials to turn CO2 from an emission reduction burden into a high-value resource. The latter has outstanding advantages of low investment in energy systems, low marginal emission reduction costs and strong boost for clean development. It is expected that by 2060, the society will achieve carbon neutrality with a social benefit of approximately RMB 1100 trillion, equivalent to RMB 9 of social benefit per RMB invested.

The Road to China Carbon Neutrality gives a comprehensive and systematic analysis of the current situation, development trends, technological directions and emission reduction potential of major carbon emission areas such as energy production, industry, transportation and buildings. It proposes key decarbonization initiatives such as clean replacement, electricity replacement, energy efficiency enhancement, power grid interconnection and industrial structure upgrading, covering all aspects of economic and social life. Moreover, the book has made a quantitative assessment on the development trends and cost-effectiveness of various low-carbon technologies and proposes a carbon neutrality technology system comprising six major areas and 30 types of technologies, as well as a package of viable, scalable and replicable development models.

 

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The book was published and distributed by China Electric Power Press, a subsidiary of Yingda Media Investment Group Co., Ltd. Sun Shengpeng, general manager of Yingda Media attended the ceremony and introduced that the Road to China Carbon Neutrality consists of nine chapters and about 330,000 words. China Electric Power Press deployed a professional team of its excellent editors to complete the publication by rigorous and meticulous editing and compiling of the book's framework, style, textual content, sources and references.

At the launch ceremony, renowned experts and scholars of the relevant fields exchanged views on the theme of the book. Zhang Zhengling, deputy director general of the Development Planning Department of State Grid Corporation of China, said that the Road to China Carbon Neutrality has comprehensively and accurately analyzed the challenges in achieving China's carbon emissions peak and carbon neutrality, and clarified the development direction and main tasks of the energy and power industry under the carbon neutrality target, which is of great value in guiding the country's top-level design for carbon neutrality and the development planning of enterprises in related industries. Wang Yun, deputy director of the International Affairs Management Center of China Three Gorges Corporation, said that the book upholds GEIDCO's tradition of research with a high starting point and a big picture in mind, providing excellent solutions for the energy industry and related enterprises in a timely manner. The Three Gorges Group is willing to adopt the pathway, measures and approaches in this book in its endeavor to accelerate carbon neutrality. Gao Shixian, Deputy Director of the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that there are less than 40 years to achieve the goal of "2060 Carbon Neutrality". This book provides scientific basis and theoretical analysis for promoting carbon emissions peaks and carbon neutrality. We expect people from all walks of life to participate in this profound systemic change. Jing Chunmei, Deputy Director of the Research and Information Department of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said that as the first international organization established by China in the field of energy, GEIDCO has always championed Chinese solutions and contributing Chinese wisdom from a global perspective. This book is strategic, forward-looking, targeted and practical with great strategic vision and policy reference value.

GEIDCO has recently published four research results, namely, Report on China’s CO2 Emission Peak before 2030, Report on China’s Carbon Neutrality before 2060, The Development and Outlook of Digital Intelligence Power Technology and The Development and Outlook of Electrification Technology. It also plans to publish the Global Carbon Emissions Peak and Carbon Neutrality Study this year.