Fujian Province "double carbon" goal and action roadmap seminar was held

On November 3, the Fujian Provincial "Double Carbon" Goal and Action Roadmap Seminar was held in Fuzhou. Leaders from relevant government departments in Fujian Province, experts and scholars from think tanks and universities inside and outside the province, industry organizations and enterprise executives discussed and exchanged views on the achievements of Fujian's "double carbon" action and the next development path, and offered suggestions for the realization of Fujian's "double carbon" goal.   

The Research Report on the Dual Carbon Goals and Action Roadmap of Fujian Province (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), jointly researched and written by the Energy Research Institute of Peking University and the Institute of Carbon Neutrality of Fujian Normal University, conducted in-depth research and analysis from three aspects: analysis of energy consumption carbon emission pattern, carbon emission prediction, and low-carbon path.

Fujian Province is facing major development needs during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, and the province's economy needs to maintain steady growth, with the target of an average annual GDP growth rate of 6.3%. This will promote the accelerated development of the energy industry and the adjustment of the structure of energy production and consumption. The 14th Five-Year Plan for Energy Development in Fujian Province clearly states that by 2025, the province's energy consumption per unit of GDP will be reduced by 14% compared with 2020, the proportion of coal will be reduced to 48.2%, and the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption will be increased by 27.4%. At present, the proportion of high-energy-consumption and high-carbon industries in some areas of the province is still high, the endogenous growth of the manufacturing industry and the development of the petrochemical industry are still accelerating, and the demand for energy consumption is showing a rigid growth trend. To achieve the goal of peaking carbon emissions, Fujian Province faces challenges and difficulties.

According to reports, in the face of the global energy transition, as well as the major task of Fujian Province to build the economic zone on the west coast of the Taiwan Strait, the Fujian Free Trade Zone, the core area of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and the first national ecological civilization pilot zone, Fujian Province needs to take into account steady economic growth and green and low-carbon transformation. At present, the energy consumption demand in Fujian Province is still showing a rigid growth trend, with a high proportion of high-energy-consuming and high-carbon industries, and fossil energy accounts for a relatively large proportion of the energy structure but a low self-sufficiency rate. These characteristics make Fujian Province face great pressure in terms of energy supply security and carbon dioxide emission reduction, and the low-carbon transition needs to be accelerated urgently.

According to the report, at the prefecture-level city level, there are obvious differences in energy consumption, carbon emissions and their change trends among the nine prefecture-level cities involved in the study, and Quanzhou City, which has a developed petrochemical industry, has always been the prefecture-level city with the largest total energy consumption in Fujian Province and the prefecture-level city with the largest carbon emissions. In recent years, with the rapid development of industries such as new energy vehicles and energy storage batteries, Ningde has become a prefecture-level city with the fastest growth rate in energy consumption. In addition, the proportion of carbon emissions in prefecture-level cities such as Zhangzhou and Putian also ranks high in Fujian Province. According to this, Wang Yuan, deputy dean of the Institute of Carbon Neutrality of Fujian Normal University, believes that Quanzhou, Ningde, Putian and other provinces and cities need to increase emission reduction efforts and the process of green economic development and transformation, and the coordinated development capacity of the Fujian River Delta region needs to be accelerated.

In terms of sectors, industry and transportation are the largest carbon dioxide emitters in Fujian Province, accounting for 68.5% and 10.3% of the province's total carbon emissions, respectively. These two sectors are also the two sectors with the largest increase in CO2 emissions in Fujian Province. In terms of subdivided industries and nine prefecture-level cities, the power and heat production and supply industry is the sector with the largest proportion of carbon dioxide emissions in Fuzhou, Ningde, Putian, Xiamen and Zhangzhou. These prefecture-level cities should regard the production and supply of electricity and heat as key areas for energy conservation and emission reduction. Quanzhou, Sanming and Longyan should respectively focus on energy conservation and emission reduction in the petrochemical and nuclear fuel processing industries, ferrous metal smelting and rolling processing industries, and non-metallic mineral products industries.

Medium- and long-term energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in Fujian Province. Based on the socio-economic development trends of Fujian Province in recent years and referring to the current policy content, the research team set up three development scenarios of "low-medium-high" to simulate the future development trend of carbon dioxide emissions in Fujian. Forecasts show that Fujian Province is on track to achieve its carbon peak target by 2030, or even ahead of schedule.

In addition, the report decomposes the driving factors of future carbon dioxide emission growth from the perspectives of energy structure, energy intensity, industrial structure, economic scale, population size, etc., to identify key sectors and key emission reduction directions. According to reports, the research team found that optimizing the energy structure, reducing energy intensity and improving the quality of economic development have a significant inhibitory effect on the growth of carbon dioxide emissions. Therefore, Fujian Province needs to further accelerate the pace of energy structure optimization and adjustment, greatly increase the proportion of non-fossil energy, and promote the substitution of clean energy for fossil energy; accelerate the research and application of green environmental protection technologies, especially low-carbon, carbon-free and carbon-negative technologies, promote the green upgrading and energy efficiency improvement of key equipment; deepen the adjustment of industrial structure, and build a low-carbon green economic development system and other measures will be an effective path for Fujian Province to move towards green development.

Jin Zhijun, dean of the Energy Research Institute of Peking University and academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that Fujian Province is a national ecological civilization pilot demonstration zone and the country's first national ecological civilization pilot zone, and it is also the only province in the country that meets the needs of water, atmosphere, and ecological environment at the same time, and the per capita GDP of all prefecture-level cities exceeds the national average, and is at the forefront of the national "double carbon" goal practice. He hoped that the research and seminar with Fujian Normal University would lead to ambitious, implementable and effective programs and measures for the sustainable development of Fujian Province.

Chen Qinghua, member of the Standing Committee of the Party Committee and vice president of Fujian Normal University, said that achieving the "double carbon" goal is a broad and profound economic and social systemic change, which requires the joint participation of the government, universities, enterprises and institutions. The research on the action roadmap of the "dual carbon" goal in Fujian Province will help build an industry-education integration mechanism in the field of carbon neutrality, and provide solid research support and talent guarantee for the realization of the "double carbon" goal.

Yang Fuqiang, a distinguished researcher at the Energy Research Institute of Peking University, said that the coordinated promotion of carbon reduction, pollution reduction and green growth is crucial to the promotion of "dual carbon" work in Fujian Province. The construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system will effectively improve the energy structure and reduce energy intensity, and help achieve the goal of low-carbon development. Fujian Province is located on the southeast coast, with outstanding wind resource endowment, and also has the conditions for the development of nuclear power, which can accelerate the energy transition through the safe and orderly development of the nuclear power industry and the construction of offshore wind power industry clusters. In addition, Fujian Province has abundant carbon sink resources, and measures such as continuously consolidating and improving carbon sink capacity, developing high-carbon sink forestry, improving the carbon sequestration and carbon reduction capacity of marine systems and ecosystems, and synergizing ecological carbon sink and spatial planning will also provide effective assistance for the realization of the "double carbon" goal in Fujian Province.