2023 Zero Carbon Summit： From 0 to 1, Towards Carbon Neutrality and High Quality Development
In the past year, the situation at home and abroad was complicated and changeable, and the combination of geopolitics, extreme weather and other factors had a profound impact on the global response to climate change. How to maintain a reasonable economic growth rate on the road of carbon neutrality in peak carbon dioxide emissions has become a focus topic.
On August 9th, the 2023 First Financial Zero Carbon Summit was held in Shanghai. With the theme of "From 0 to 1, towards carbon-neutral and high-quality development", this year’s "Zero Carbon Summit" invited authoritative experts and industry leaders in the field of sustainable development to share their insights on sustainable development.
Chen Siwei, CEO of CBN, said in his speech that at the first CBN Zero Carbon Summit in 2021, we solemnly put forward the initiative of "0 to 1" to witness the development and change of the environment from a professional perspective and explain the challenges and opportunities contained in it to the public. Today, two years later, everyone is more and more aware of the value of doing professional research and reporting in the field of double carbon. The past July was the hottest July on record. The environmental crisis has changed from an abstract topic to a phenomenon that we can generally perceive. The goal of double carbon has become more and more practical and urgent. It is expected that this summit will continue to gain insight into the complex relationship between climate and social economy from a professional perspective, and make suggestions for the sustainable development of China in the future.
Chen Sixie, CEO of CBN
In the next keynote speech, Huang Zhen, academician of China Academy of Engineering and dean of the Institute of Carbon Neutralization Development of Shanghai Jiaotong University, shared four characteristics of energy green transformation under the goal of carbon neutrality. Huang Zhen said that the green energy transition towards carbon neutrality is not only an energy issue, but also a technical issue. It is a global and systematic issue. Therefore, energy transformation is not achieved overnight, but should be gradual, with policies, laws and regulations as the leading factor, science and technology as the strategic drive, and the market as the important support, so as to make top-level design and scientific decision.
Huang Zhen, Academician of China Academy of Engineering and Dean of Carbon Neutralization Development Research Institute of Shanghai Jiaotong University.
How to balance carbon neutrality and economic development and transformation? Dai Yande, former director of the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission and director of the Energy Economic Committee of the China Energy Research Association, proposed that to achieve carbon neutrality, we should not only do a good job in energy, but also do a good job in economy, and the four wheels should turn together. These four wheels include: the economic development model should be changed to improve the quality of economic growth and reduce periodic waste; The supply mode should be changed, and the current energy structure should be reversed. Now more than 80% is fossil energy, and 85% will be non-fossil energy in the future. To change the production mode, we can approach the theoretical energy consumption by relying on digitalization, informationization and programmability; The lifestyle should be reduced.
Dai Yande, former director of Energy Research Institute of National Development and Reform Commission and director of Energy Economic Committee of China Energy Research Association.
Leng Bing, director of the International Council for Sustainable Standards (ISSB), introduced the international sustainable disclosure standards and the latest progress. With the global market’s emphasis on environment, society and corporate governance (ESG), ISSB issued two standards for the disclosure of sustainable information on June 26th this year. The first is the general requirements for financial disclosure related to sustainability. The second item is the only theme criterion so far, climate disclosure. "This is a standard set between the ceiling and the floor." Lengbing said that in the future, ISSB will concentrate all its efforts to support the smooth and effective implementation of the new S1 and S2 standards, including talking with major countries around the world to help them implement, introduce and implement the standards.
Leng Bing, Director of the International Council for Sustainable Standards (ISSB)
The construction of carbon market in China is also a topic of great concern. Liu Jie, general manager of Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange, said that since the national carbon market was officially launched on July 16, 2021, the basic framework of the national carbon market has been basically completed and the key links have been initially opened. Generally speaking, there have been transactions on every trading day in the past two years. In the future, electricity will take the lead in the national carbon market, and other industries will gradually follow suit. After all industries are brought into the national carbon market, the overall quota will reach 6.5 billion to 7 billion tons, accounting for about 60% of the country’s total emissions, and there will be more than 80,000 management enterprises.
Liu Jie, General Manager of Shanghai Environmental Energy Exchange.
John Markmann, president of Gryffindor China, shared the melting of ice in Greenland and the changing trend of temperature in China. Facing the increasingly severe climate, water resources and energy challenges, Grundfos provides groundbreaking solutions to help customers optimize water resources and energy management and help sustainable development through continuous innovation, optimizing supply chain and expanding partnerships. Mark Man introduced that Gryffindor’s net zero emission target in 2050 was fully certified by SBTi (Scientific Carbon Target Initiative), and Gryffindor’s emission reduction target in 2030 was also certified.
John Markmann, President of Gryffindor China.
Photovoltaic is one of the important means to support zero carbon. According to the prediction of the International Renewable Energy Agency, 90% of the global energy in the future will be renewable energy, of which more than 70% will be photovoltaic+wind power, so photovoltaic will become a major energy source in the future. Wu Shengwen, CTO of Ai Shiwei, said that as of the end of last year, the global PV installation was 1.2TW, and it is expected to reach 18TW by 2050, which means that there is still a lot of room for photovoltaic development. Judging from the situation in China, the installed capacity has reached 78GW in the first half of this year, and the whole installed capacity will exceed the previous expectation, reaching about 300~350GW.
Ai Shiwei CTO Wu Shengwen
After the keynote speech, two wonderful round-table discussions pushed the atmosphere of this zero-carbon summit to a high point.
In the first discussion on the official release of ISSB Standards-ESG financial integration is fully started, and the logic of high-quality assets is waiting to be reconstructed, Janice, managing partner of climate and sustainable development business of Oliver Wyman Consulting, Yu Rong, head of ESG business in Greater China of S&P Global Sustainable1, Qu Weifeng, chairman of sustainable development committee of Leverage and co-leader of sustainable development standard project team of Shanghai Federation of Industrial Economics, Liu Yifeng, senior ESG researcher of Xingzheng Global Fund, and Zhou Xufeng, deputy director of CBN Sustainable Business Research Center, discussed the impact of ISSB standards.
Participants believed that the official release of ISSB guidelines can be said to be "the wolf is really coming", and its essence is to change sustainable data from voluntary disclosure to mandatory disclosure, which represents the end of one era and the opening of another. Under the requirements of high standards, enterprises need to rediscover their own sustainable problems and understand how to balance their sustainable development goals with their own business goals, which also means that future business management will face a big change.
In the round-table discussion on "Breaking First, Standing Next: Sustainability and Energy Transformation", Huang Chongjie, general manager of China District of Glenford Industrial Division, Qi Kang, deputy general manager of Shanghai Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Center, Du Huanzheng, double-employed professor of UNEP-Tongji University School of Environment and Sustainable Development and Marxist College, director of Tongji University Institute of Ecological Civilization and Circular Economy, and president of Yangtze River Delta Circular Economy Technology Research Institute (Zhejiang), Fang Yong, general manager of China District of Grundfos Commercial Construction Division, and Ji Ya, editor-in-chief of CBN Sustainable Business Research Center, had in-depth discussions on the challenges encountered in the sustainable development of industries with high energy consumption, such as industry and construction, and how technological innovation can promote energy transformation. Participants agreed that digital development will play a very important supporting role in low-carbon energy.
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