BEIJING: The 2024 Global Sustainable Innovation Development Forum was concluded in Beijing last week, in which renewable energy was put great emphasis to discuss.
“Some politicians said about China’s overcapacity in electric cars, batteries and solar panels. But that’s exactly what we want. We want every nation to produce more and better green products so that we can make the green transformation at speed,” Erik Solheim, the Sixth and former UN Environment Executive Director and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations remarked in the forum, CEN reported on Wednesday.
“Some nations are putting tariffs on Chinese electric cars because they are of higher cost and lower price. That’s exactly what we do not need to do. No one should blame China for overcapacity as they don’t blame Apple or Samsung for making wonderful cell phones. They have overcapacity and are producing more than they can sell in the American or the Korean market,” he said.
“Trade is based on some nations having overcapacity in some sectors and others in other sectors. This is a completely wrong accusation against China which we need to defeat,” he underlined.
According to Erik Solheim, “60% to more of solar, wind, hydropower, electric batteries, electric cars, high-speed trains and metros and whatever you can think of are now developed in one nation alone and that is China. Two thirds of all solar and wind energy in the world came into the grid in China alone.”
He also mentioned that China is a frontrunner in tree planting in the world which is embarking upon one of the most massive national park systems in the world. “China is protecting nature much better than in the past, and it’s leading the green transformation,” he said.
For the ongoing green transition around the world, Erik Solheim gave a few suggestions of right policies, people centered approach and global collaboration.
“Green competition is good as it is a race to the top while green protectionism is exactly opposite because it’s a race to the bottom,” he commented.
