Accelerate scientific and technological innovation to promote my country's carbon neutral country construction

On September 22, President Xi Jinping delivered an important speech at the general debate of the 75th United Nations General Assembly, solemnly declaring to the international community that China will increase its national independent contribution, adopt more powerful policies and measures, strive to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030, and strive to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. He also stressed the need to seize the historic opportunity of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, promote the "green recovery" of the world economy after the epidemic, and gather a strong force for sustainable development. President Xi Jinping's important speech is of great significance and far-reaching influence. It fully reflects the foresight and magnanimity of the leader of a major country. It has been widely recognized and highly praised by the international community, and has also pointed out the direction for the green and low-carbon development of global energy and technology.

my country's climate action has made remarkable contributions to global low-carbon technological progress

While achieving positive results in addressing climate change, my country has actively promoted the development of green and low-carbon industries and technologies. my country has taken addressing climate change as a major strategic opportunity to promote high-quality economic development in my country and lead global green and low-carbon development. By promoting a revolution in energy production and consumption, the creation of a green industrial system, and low-carbon urbanization, China has basically reversed the rapid growth of greenhouse gas emissions and worked hard to gradually decouple economic growth from greenhouse gas emissions. While making important contributions to global efforts to address climate change, China has also effectively promoted the sustainable development of the economy, society, and environment, giving rise to new technologies, new products, and new models, with significant effects on improving economic development efficiency and carbon productivity.

Actions to address climate change have promoted innovation in the new low-carbon economy. my country's green manufacturing, construction and transportation sectors have accelerated the cultivation of new growth momentum. my country's green manufacturing system has developed rapidly. So far, 1,402 green factories, 118 green parks and 90 green supply chain companies have been built. Green buildings account for about 60% of newly built civil buildings in cities and towns. Through energy-saving renovation of existing residential buildings in cities and towns, the living environment has been effectively improved while improving the operating efficiency of buildings, benefiting 21 million households. The development of new energy vehicles leads the world. Since 2010, domestic new energy vehicles have grown rapidly at an average annual rate of doubling, and domestic new energy vehicle sales account for 55% of global new energy vehicle sales.

The carbon neutrality vision will greatly promote the rapid development of low-emission technologies

The realization of my country's carbon neutrality vision relies primarily on the role of low-emission technology innovation in promoting green and low-carbon production and lifestyles. The energy system under the carbon neutrality vision will undergo profound and leapfrog changes, and non-fossil energy utilization technologies represented by advanced nuclear energy and renewable energy will become mainstream. Electrification technologies for terminal energy utilization in industries, construction, transportation and other fields, deep decarbonization technologies in power production, and biomass hydrogen production and gasification power generation technologies will be applied on a large scale.

Carbon capture, utilization and storage technology, air carbon capture technology, mineral carbonization technology, geochemical technology and other carbon removal methods will serve as effective supplementary means. These will inevitably bring greater R&D investment and industrial application opportunities for the development of low-emission technologies.

The realization of my country's carbon neutrality vision will also rely on the large-scale construction and smart interconnection of new low-emission infrastructure. The construction of new low-emission infrastructure, mainly new energy vehicle charging piles, electrified high-speed railways, ultra-high voltage direct current transmission, smart grids, distributed renewable energy power generation, advanced energy storage, hydrogen steelmaking, green hydrogen chemicals, and zero-carbon buildings, will become an important investment direction in the future, and will likely replace traditional infrastructure on a large scale to form a smart interconnected network, thereby integrating into a systematic, high-quality, low-emission development comprehensive solution to support the deep transformation of the entire economic field from low-carbon, near-zero-carbon, and net-zero-carbon in the future.

The realization of my country's carbon neutrality vision will ultimately rely on the establishment of an industry and economic system that is innovation-driven and green and zero-carbon oriented. my country's green recovery and low-emission development after the epidemic will largely rely on the "dual-wheel drive" of digitalization and greening, which will significantly promote the deep integration of new-generation information technology and advanced low-carbon technology, especially new materials, new energy vehicles, advanced rail transit equipment, non-fossil power equipment, electronics and information industry, biotechnology and other green manufacturing industries will be rapidly developed. Through the guidance and pressure of the carbon neutrality vision, new growth momentum will be cultivated in high-tech, high-efficiency and low-emission fields such as digital economy, clean energy, smart cities, etc. with great development potential and strong driving force, and it is expected that a number of international advanced green and low-carbon manufacturing industry clusters will be gradually formed.

Strengthen major scientific and technological projects to support my country's carbon neutral country construction

As President Xi Jinping has requested, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change represents the general direction of global green and low-carbon transformation and is the minimum action needed to protect our planet. All countries must take decisive steps. In the future, when the world achieves carbon neutrality, low-carbon development capabilities, low-carbon advanced technologies and low-carbon economic systems will become the core competitiveness of economic development in all countries, and also the symbol of a modern country. They should become an important starting point for building my country's long-term core competitiveness.

Strengthen the research on major scientific and technological projects for the formulation and implementation of the national strategy for carbon neutrality. Set up several important research directions around the 2030 and 2060 goals and deploy research as soon as possible, study and issue a carbon dioxide emissions peak action plan as soon as possible, accelerate the study of the deep decarbonization path of the economy and society after carbon dioxide emissions peak, study and demonstrate the vision and goals of climate change action in 2035, gradually establish a total greenhouse gas emissions control and budget allocation system, create an innovative platform for the coordinated governance of climate change and ecological environment, and support relevant national departments in systematically planning the basic strategy and implementation roadmap for the construction of a "carbon neutral country".

Accelerate the research and development and innovation of key core technologies for building a carbon-neutral country. Establish a world-leading low-carbon science and technology innovation system, promote the research and development, innovation and application promotion of key common technologies, cutting-edge leading technologies, and disruptive innovative technologies such as energy efficiency, new energy, energy storage, negative emissions/carbon removal, and deploy a number of low-emission technology research and development and innovation projects with forward-looking, systematic, and strategic layouts, break through the technical bottlenecks in key materials, instruments and equipment, core processes, industrial control devices, and other fields in carbon-neutral development, and gradually build an innovation center for new technologies, new products, new formats, and new models for global carbon-neutral development.

Strengthen the implementation of major scientific and technological innovation and engineering project construction. We must seize the historic opportunity of the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, increase the construction of greenhouse gas net zero emissions, negative emissions/carbon removal engineering projects in the fields of industry, energy, construction and transportation, cultivate and build a number of national engineering research centers, national technology innovation centers, national science and technology resource sharing service platforms and other innovation bases and platforms, create core competitiveness for the development of green and low-carbon industries, promote the construction of national carbon neutrality pilot demonstration zones, and gradually build a high-quality, low-emission modern economic system. (The author Chai Qimin is the director of the Strategic Planning Department of the National Climate Strategy Center, and Xu Huaqing is the director of the National Climate Strategy Center)