By H.E. LU Kun, Ambassador of China to Ghana
In recent years, the development of China’s new energy industry has entered the “fast lane”.
The export of China’s “new trio”, namely, electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products, will exceed one trillion yuan in 2023. As the world faces increasingly severe climate change, weak economic growth, and continued high inflation, China’s high-efficiency, high-quality, and cost-effective new energy products will bring new opportunities for global economic development.
China’s new energy industry will contribute to the global green transformation.
The development of China’s new energy industry has not only enabled China to fulfill its own emission reduction commitments, but its new energy products exported to all over the world have also played an important role in reducing global carbon emissions.
China’s wind power and photovoltaic products have been exported to more than 200 countries and regions around the world, and the export volume of new energy vehicles has reached 1.203 million units in 2023.
China’s new energy products have greatly promoted the global popularization and efficiency of green energy, helping countries around the world solve energy problems, achieve carbon reduction goals, and accelerate green transformation.
China’s new energy industry will support the stability of the global industrial chain. Currently, there is a serious shortage of high-quality production capacity in the world. According to estimates by the International Energy Agency, global demand for new energy vehicles will reach 45 million units in 2030, 4.5 times that of 2022; global demand for new installed photovoltaic capacity will reach 820 GW, approximately 4 times that of 2022.
The current production capacity for new energy products is far from meeting market demand, especially the huge potential demand in many developing countries. As the world’s largest manufacturer of renewable energy equipment, China continues to provide the world with high-quality new energy products and has become an important force in stabilizing the supply chain and industry chain of global clean energy.
China’s new energy industry will alleviate the pressure of global inflation. China has started out early in the new energy-related industries. Combined with China’s rich highly-skilled human resources and vast range of supporting industries such as raw material supply, parts manufacturing, complete machine assembly, and after-sales services, China is able to produce high quality new energy products with lower prices. For example, a new energy vehicle manufacturer can find all supporting parts suppliers within a 4-hour drive, significantly reducing the cost of new energy vehicles.
A report from the International Renewable Energy Agency shows that over the past decade, the average levelized cost of energy of global wind power and photovoltaic power generation projects has dropped by more than 60% and 80% respectively. A large part of this is attributed to Chinese innovation, Chinese manufacturing, and Chinese engineering.
However, some countries have falsely accused China of “overcapacity” in the new energy industry in an attempt to distort and discredit China’s economic relations with the world and maintain its monopoly in the global industrial and supply chains.
This fallacy that equates China’s large export of new energy products with “overcapacity” is contrary to common sense and is seriously inconsistent with objective facts. The behaviour that holds high the banner of green development while wielding the baton of protectionism is double standards. To politicize economic and trade issues and arbitrarily link them to security will hinder global green transformation, shake confidence in climate change cooperation, and dampen the determination of enterprises to carry out foreign trade and investment cooperation.
China and Africa have complementary advantages and highly compatible demands in the green energy industry and have great potential and space for cooperation. In recent years, China and Africa have continuously strengthened green energy cooperation, focusing on the clean energy industry and the construction of power infrastructure, and have implemented hundreds of clean energy power generation and power grid projects, which has effectively promoted Africa’s green transformation and sustainable development. China sincerely welcomes Ghana and all countries around the world to board the express train of China’s new energy industry development, and work towards a greener future for mankind together.
