On the morning of October 18, at the Second Belt and Road Energy Ministerial Conference in Qingdao, the Belt and Road Energy Partnership Cooperation Network was formally established, with GEIDCO elected as the chair of connectivity (power) working group. Mr. Wu Xuan, Secretary General of GEIDCO, attended the event and addressed the high-level meeting on Enabling Green and Low Carbon Energy Development with High Quality Belt and Road Cooperation.
Wu Xuan said that in September 2015, President Xi Jinping proposed Global Energy Interconnection (GEI) initiative at the UN Sustainable Development Summit, opening a new path for building a community with a shared future and enhancing the well-beings of people worldwide, receiving extensive recognition and support from the international community. GEI represents an energy infrastructure platform for large-scale development, delivery and use of clean energy resources worldwide. GEI will bring about "three transformations", i.e., the transformation from fossil fuels to clean alternatives in energy production, the transformation from local balance to global energy allocation, and the transformation from coal, oil and gas to electricity in energy consumption. It thus provides a fundamental pathway to promote world energy transition and sustainable development.
Wu Xuan remarked that GEI would bring huge economic, social, and environmental benefits, ensure energy supply, clean development, economic growth, and promote opening-up and cooperation, adding a strong impetus for high quality “Belt and Road” development. With clean, green, and sustainable at its core, the key to achieve such high-quality development calls for “three revolutions”, i.e., global electric power revolution through UHV grid to enable clean and efficient power development, global energy revolution through GEI to ensure green and low-carbon energy development, and the economic and social revolution through Energy, Transportation and Information Networks Integration (ETI Integration) to facilitate sustainable development.
GEIDCO has done a lot of pioneering work in planning and research, technical standardization, and international cooperation, put forward two “1+6” planning systems covering global and continental energy interconnection research and outlook, and renewable energy development and investment, and released the technical roadmap and outlook for clean energy power generation, UHV transmission, DC submarine cable and high-capacity energy storage, as well as a Global Energy Interconnection Standard System. It has established extensive cooperation with the United Nations, many national governments, organizations and institutions. Leveraging its advantages in project resources, research findings, information & data, member network and global working structure, GEIDCO has built“World of Energy Interconnection (WEI)” platform, the world’s first digital platform of its kind focusing on global energy and power development, integrating such functions as project promotion, exchange and cooperation, information sharing and consulting services.
At the launch of think tank report during the ministerial conference, GEIDCO released the Road to Global Carbon Neutrality. According to Zhou Yuanbing, Director General of the Economic and Technology Research Institute of GEIDCO, by using a variety of the comprehensive energy and climate assessment model, clean energy resource assessment model, energy and power planning and other modeling tools independently developed by GEIDCO, the book took stock of grave challenges of climate change, delved into practical difficulties facing many counties in reducing their carbon footprint, and expounded on the development ideas, roadmap of actions, key measures, and comprehensive value of realizing carbon neutrality via GEI. The book provides a systematic solution for meeting the control target of the Paris Agreement, in a technically advanced, highly cost-effective, collaborative and mutual beneficial way.
