ma hanzhi: china is a true partner in africa's green transformation
2024-09-08
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at present, china's economy has entered a stage of high-quality development, and china's green innovation development in particular has attracted global attention. in international cooperation, china and africa continue to deepen cooperation in the fields of clean energy and climate change, opening up new growth points for china-africa cooperation. china is becoming a true partner for african countries to achieve green transformation.
first, china is a global leader in green development. since the new era, china has implemented the new development concept of innovation, coordination, greenness, openness and sharing, and has unswervingly taken the path of high-quality development with ecological priority, conservation and intensiveness, greenness and low carbon. focusing on the implementation of the carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals, various tasks have been vigorously, effectively and orderly promoted. with the strong promotion and support of the chinese government, china's industrial structure adjustment has been significantly accelerated and the efficiency of energy and resource utilization has been significantly improved. the rapid development of my country's new energy industry has promoted the widespread application and industrialization of green, digital, artificial intelligence and other technologies, and has continuously spawned new technologies, adding new momentum to global green development. according to statistics from the international renewable energy agency, over the past 10 years, the average cost per kilowatt-hour of global wind power and photovoltaic power generation projects has fallen by more than 60% and 80% respectively, a large part of which is attributed to the contribution of chinese companies in the production of new energy products.
china is not only an industry leader in global green development, but also a leader in the concept of global green development. china has promoted the green development of the belt and road initiative. over the past 10 years, with the joint efforts of all parties, the green development of the belt and road initiative has made positive progress. from 2014 to 2020, china's investment in renewable energy in the belt and road initiative projects increased by nearly 40%, helping the co-construction countries to build a number of key clean energy projects. china has put forward a global development initiative, identifying green development and climate change as eight key areas of cooperation, and continuously injecting "green momentum" into promoting the implementation of the united nations 2030 sustainable development goals. in addition, with china's active participation and support, platforms such as the forum on china-africa cooperation, the china-arab cooperation forum, the shanghai cooperation organization, and the brics cooperation mechanism have all listed green development as a key direction of cooperation, gathering the tremendous power of the "global south" to jointly build a green home.
secondly, china's efforts to help africa achieve green development is a systematic project. green cooperation is not only an important part of the top-level design of china-africa cooperation, but also an important part of china-africa all-round friendly cooperation. at the 2021 dakar conference of the forum on china-africa cooperation, china and africa issued two documents, the "vision for china-africa cooperation in 2035" and the "china-africa declaration on cooperation in addressing climate change", which reflected their determination to plan bilateral cooperation from a long-term perspective and strategic height. the "vision" document pointed out that china and africa will jointly create a new model of green development and realize china-africa ecological co-construction. the goal is to comprehensively promote cooperation in addressing climate change, transform energy cooperation to clean and low-carbon, and help improve the quality of development through green cooperation. the "vision" has drawn a blueprint and pointed out the direction for china and africa to work together to achieve green development. the "declaration" pointed out that we have decided to establish a new era of china-africa strategic partnership for addressing climate change. the "declaration" has gathered consensus for china and africa to strengthen coordination and cooperation in the multilateral process of addressing climate change and jointly safeguard the interests of developing countries.
in terms of specific cooperation dimensions, whether it is the "eight action plans" launched at the 2018 beijing summit of the forum on china-africa cooperation or the "nine projects" proposed by the 2021 forum, "green development" is a key direction, reflecting the distinctive characteristics of china-africa cooperation that keeps pace with the times. since the end of 2021, china has implemented 17 ecological and environmental protection, clean energy, and climate change response projects, including the central african juncao aid, ethiopian green riverbank, lesotho photovoltaic power station, and togo grassland development, to fulfill china's commitments. at the same time, under the framework of the joint construction of the "belt and road" and global development initiatives, china has also provided africa with a large number of "small and beautiful" green cooperation projects. so far, the total number of global development project libraries has exceeded 1,000 projects, with more than 500 projects completed and under implementation.
finally, green cooperation has brought real benefits to both china and africa. in 2023, china's exports of new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products to africa increased by 291%, 109%, and 57% year-on-year, respectively, which strongly supported africa's green energy transformation and further consolidated africa's advantages in the new energy industry.
in the field of infrastructure, china has helped african countries build a large number of clean energy projects and supported african countries in enhancing the endogenous driving force of green development. according to statistics, china has implemented hundreds of clean energy and green development projects in africa. the cumulative installed capacity of photovoltaic power stations built by chinese companies in cooperation with africa exceeds 1.5 gw, which is at the forefront of international green cooperation with africa. in morocco, the noor ii and iii solar thermal power stations built by chinese companies provide clean energy for more than 1 million moroccan households, which has completely changed the situation of morocco's long-term dependence on imported electricity. in south africa, the de-arab wind power project invested and built by chinese companies provides 760 million kilowatt-hours of stable and clean electricity to the local area every year, meeting the electricity needs of 300,000 households and reducing carbon emissions by 619,900 tons. driven by the forum on china-africa cooperation and the belt and road initiative, china has actively promoted a number of green energy technologies, products and experiences such as hydropower, wind power, solar energy and geothermal energy to "go global". one hydropower station, wind power station and photovoltaic power station after another have been built from scratch, helping more and more african countries participating in the belt and road initiative to realize their green and low-carbon development dreams.
green development cooperation is a window for observing china-africa comprehensive cooperation. it shows why china's development is a major opportunity for africa and the world, why china's cooperation with africa is at the forefront of the world, and why china-africa cooperation can last forever. (the author is a scholar at the institute of developing countries, china institute of international studies)
