China to augment Brazil's green energy

China's technology and financial capital have been playing an important role in Brazil's clean energy transition and cooperation between the two countries in sustainable development is expected to continue deepening in the years to come, industry experts said on Thursday.

As Brazil has been vigorously developing wind and solar energy in recent years, with the proportion of renewable energy in Brazil's total energy consumption set to reach 45 percent by 2030, Chinese companies will play a greater role in the local new energy layout, said Lin Boqiang, head of the China Institute for Studies in Energy Policy at Xiamen University.

To address the challenges of an energy crisis and climate change, Brazil needs to seek more international partners to collaborate in developing its abundant green energy resources. The deepening cooperation between China and Brazil in renewable energy will provide new impetus for Brazil's economic transformation, he said.

Chen Daobiao, general manager of the Brazilian branch of State Grid Corp of China, said Brazil's abundant renewable power generation resources and China's mature and reliable equipment technology will lead to enormous potential for cooperation between the two countries in the field of renewable energy.

Brazilian companies have also been stepping up cooperation with Chinese partners in recent years.

Brazilian mining company Vale recently announced the signing of seven agreements with different Chinese partners to strengthen its relationship with China, including a project investment agreement for the Morowali project in Indonesia, two comprehensive strategic cooperation agreements signed with leading Chinese banks and two agreements to strengthen cooperation with Chinese universities.

"As a partner of China for 50 years and a reliable supplier of raw materials to the Chinese steel industry, Vale has a long-term commitment to the Chinese market," said Alexandre Silva D'Ambrosio, the company's executive vice-president of corporate and external affairs.

"We will continue to offer high-quality iron ore products to the country to support the continued development of its economy and further deepen our strategic partnership in sustainable mining and low-carbon solutions."

Brazilian mining company Companhia Brasileira de Metalurgia e Mineracao, or CBMM, also said recently that the company's business in China has grown rapidly and is confident in its cooperation with CITIC Metal, a subsidiary of CITIC Group's advanced materials sector.

CBMM announced its plan to shift 35 percent of its business toward the new energy battery and electric vehicle industry by 2030, making it the company's second-largest industry.

According to Zhu Yi, a senior analyst for metals and mining at Bloomberg Intelligence, as China's steel industry aims to peak carbon emissions peak by 2025 and cut carbon emissions by 30 percent from the peak level in 2030, steel mills could use better quality iron ore or produce steel using green hydrogen-based direct reduced iron or DRI in combination with renewable energy-based electric furnaces.

As Chinese steel mills source more than 70 percent of their iron ore needs from overseas suppliers, including Vale, collaboration with miners could enable them to take into consideration the iron ore supply when designing their path to reduced carbon emissions, she said.