Global experts seek practical green development options in Beijing

On August 15, China's National Ecology Day, over 100 scholars, experts and diplomats from 36 countries and regions gathered in Beijing to attend the International Symposium on Environment, Development and Human Rights: Green and Low-Carbon Development in the Process of Modernization.

China vowed to improve systems and mechanisms in its reform of ecological conservation during last month's third plenary session of the 20th Communist Party of China Central Committee. Efforts will be made in many areas, including further developing China's national carbon market, improving its national voluntary greenhouse gas emissions reduction market and establishing a market-oriented innovation system for green technologies.

International guests attending the symposium shared the dramatic environmental changes they witnessed in China during their multiple trips to the country in the past few years and expressed hope for future cooperation with China and more green development options for the world.

"China helping other [countries] in the Global South to develop their alternative energy is very crucial," said Altaf Deviyati, secretary of the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia. "What China is doing is very important, and I think it should be the position for all countries."

"Like rightly said, we only have one planet, and we don't get to choose our neighbors. We have to work with our neighbors, and, as a member of the planet, we need to work together to help to preserve, and not just preserve but fix the planet, especially in terms of environment," she added.

While recognizing the crucial role China plays in leading the world's green transition, many attendees at the symposium expressed their concerns over the lack of international cooperation. 

"China, by itself, as powerful as it has become, can't achieve global environmental success without international cooperation. Today's global forecast is still cloudy with a chance for extinction," said Harvey Cary Dzodin, deputy chairman of HCD Earthcare Culture Association, in a speech at the symposium. 

"For the first time, wind and solar energy now produce more power than coal. By December, more than 40 percent of China's energy will come from wind and solar alone!

China is so successful that countries like mine (the U.S.) and the EU itself falsely accuse China of needlessly flooding their marketplaces with below-market-priced subsidized EVs, solar panels, and the like. At a time when the world faces an existential environmental threat to life on this planet as we know it, China's efforts should be celebrated and praised, not condemned and prevented," Dzodin added.

Delegates from other developing nations also discussed their respective countries' efforts in the green transition. Cambodia has actively promoted the development and utilization of renewable energy. "By the end of 2023, clean energy accounted for 57 percent of our energy mix," said Dr Chuop Paris, Cambodia's secretary of state at the Ministry of Environment, in his keynote speech.

"By the end of 2023, the installed capacity of operational power projects held by Chinese enterprises in Cambodia reached 2,433 megawatts, accounting for 59.7 percent of the national installed capacity. Specifically, hydropower projects account for 1,331 megawatts, reflecting Chinese enterprises' prominent contributions to Cambodian energy transition and green low-carbon development," he added.

At the symposium, delegates from different countries announced a joint initiative titled "Strengthening Ecological Civilization Construction and Promoting Green and Low-Carbon Development."

The symposium was co-organized by the China Foundation for Human Rights Development and China Datang Corporation Ltd.