South-South cooperation helping ensure sustainable development

Although a developing country, China has been actively promoting global climate governance in recent years, and its efforts have injected positive energy into the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, or COP28, in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.

The per capita cumulative emissions or per capita emissions in developed economies such as the United States and the European Union are much higher than in China, but this has not made China shirk its responsibility toward meeting the challenges brought by climate change.

For a long time, China has been committed to promoting the large-scale development and utilization of nonfossil energy and is continuously optimizing its energy structure. The share of coal in China's primary energy mix dropped from 66 percent in 2015 to 56 percent in 2022. As of June 2023, China's installed capacity of nonfossil energy increased to 50.9 percent, exceeding the installed capacity of fossil energy for the first time. As of October 2023, China's installed capacity of renewable energy power generation exceeded 1.4 billion kilowatts, or 49.9 percent of its total installed power generation, ranking first in the world for many years in a row.

China has also been intensifying technological innovation, helping reduce the cost of renewable energy significantly. In 2023, the price of photovoltaic modules in China dropped to 1,000 yuan ($139.36) per kW, down more than 90 percent from 2010. China supplies 50 percent of the world's wind power and 80 percent of the world's photovoltaic equipment, laying the foundation for the large-scale deployment of renewable energy.

Since 2013, China has promulgated and implemented a series of laws, regulations and policy measures to promote coordinated economic, social and environmental development. Small thermal power factories have gradually been phased out. China has also achieved an average annual growth rate of 3 percent in energy consumption to support an annual economic growth rate of 6.2 percent.

To advance South-South cooperation on climate change, China is providing development assistance to over 160 countries. So far, it has held 57 training courses for South-South cooperation on climate change, training over 4,000 participants from over 100 countries, and implementing 75 projects on climate change mitigation and adaptation to help developing countries tackle climate change and other challenges. All this has contributed much to the implementation of the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

-CHINA MEDIA GROUP