Dr Sultan Al Jaber, President-designate of the Cop28 summit, said China provides a strong model for how a country can continue to grow while simultaneously tackling the green energy transition.
Dr Al Jaber, who has just completed a two-day trip to China, said the country has significant potential to promote sustainable low carbon economic growth.
“Given the size of China’s economy and the scale of its development of renewable energy and decarbonisation technology, China provides a good model for sustainable economic growth and the global energy transition," said Dr Al Jaber, also the UAE's Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology.
"Over the past five years alone, China has been responsible for adding more than 40 per cent of the world’s new solar and wind power capacity and has set a very ambitious target of deploying 1,200 gigawatts of renewable capacity by the end of this decade.”
During the trip, Dr Al Jaber held several meetings with, among others, Ding Xuexiang, First Vice Premier of China; Zhao Chenxin, vice chairman of the NDRC; Huang Runqiu, Minister of Ecology and Environment; Xie Zhenhua, Special Envoy for Climate Change; and Dr Zhang Jianhua, Director of the National Energy Administration.
Building on the strength of the UAE-China strategic partnership, discussions focused on partnerships around practical, concrete efforts in the run-up to Cop28 for a step change to help achieve transformational climate progress.
He also met and addressed students at the Tsinghua University Institute for Carbon Neutrality, where he highlighted China’s leadership in renewable energy development and spoke about its capacity to enhance South-South co-operation on climate action.
Dr Sultan Al Jaber says this is the decade to provide clean energy the world needs
Dr Al Jaber said the UAE and China are committed to diversifying their energy mix and pursuing pragmatic solutions to the climate crisis.
“The partnership between the UAE and China will be a key asset to the Cop28 presidency as we seek innovative solutions to boost industrial decarbonisation, expand access to clean technologies, and ensure a just energy transition,” he said.
With the world needing to reduce global emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 to meet the Paris Agreement target of limiting the temperature rise to 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels, Dr Al Jaber said countries will need a range of technology solutions to meet their decarbonisation goals.
"We need to explore every available option. It is not renewables or hydrogen or nuclear or carbon capture or only using the least carbon-intensive oil and gas. It is all of the above, plus new technologies yet to be invented, commercialised and deployed.
“As a global leader and valued partner to emerging market economies, China is already making significant contributions to enhance South-South climate action.
"China’s support will be critical for us to deliver pragmatic, practical action on the road to Cop28 and beyond.”
In his meeting with Chinese business and industrial leaders, Dr Al Jaber continued to advocate for investment in industrial decarbonisation.
“Steel, cement, and aluminium, like energy or manufacturing, are the industries that run the world. We simply cannot stop using them. But we do have to find a way to make them more sustainable," he said.
"We must reduce emissions, not progress. We have to work with industry leaders to bring them on board as partners, and to source the solutions together.”
