Speech by Ambassador Cui at 2024 Low-Carbon and Sustainable Development Innovation Conference
2024/10/18

On October 17, Ambassador Cui gave a speech via video link at 2024 Low-Carbon and Sustainable Development Innovation Conference (Nantong) and Sino-Swedish (Rugao) Intelligent Manufacturing Cooperation Innovation Park Promotion. Here is an excerpt from his speech.


Since the beginning of 2024, China’s economy has registered steady growth and solid progress on the whole, with new quality productive forces being formed at a faster pace and high-quality development being further promoted. Meanwhile, China promotes development and environmental protection in a coordinated way. It has worked continuously to cut carbon emissions, reduce pollution, expand green development, and pursue economic growth, and its high-quality development is driven more and more by innovation and green development. Currently, over 95% of China’s coal-fired power units and over 45% of its crude steel production capacity have completed ultra-low emission transformation. It has built the largest clean power system and clean steel production system in the world. China’s forest coverage rate has reached 24%, up from 8.6% in 1949 when New China was founded. It has contributed one-fourth of the global increased area of afforestation since the 21st century. China has established a carbon market that covers the largest amount of greenhouse gas emissions in the world, a testament to China’s commitment to reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality through concrete actions. Remarkable progress has been made in China’s pursuit of sustainable development. Over half of the indicators of the U.N. 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development were achieved ahead of schedule.


The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee held recently has made the systemic and strategic plan for China to further deepen reform comprehensively to advance Chinese modernization. It has put forward over 300 reform tasks, with a focus on building a Beautiful China and ramping up the green transition in all areas of economic and social development. President Xi Jinping pointed out that green development underlies high-quality development, and that the new quality productive forces in essence are green. To this end, we will further pursue green and low-carbon development with a view to promoting harmony between humanity and nature. We will work to facilitate revolutionary breakthroughs in technology, and encourage enterprises to apply green technologies to transform and upgrade traditional sectors. We will move faster to advance new industrialization, and make the manufacturing sector higher-end, smarter, and more eco-friendly. We will develop green and low-carbon industries, and improve the system for recycling waste and used materials. We will also improve the cap-and-trade system for carbon emissions, and actively and prudently move forward reaching peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality.


Sweden leads the world in developing the green economy, and was the first country to conduct environmental protection and introduce the concept of sustainable development. It enjoys advanced environmental protection products and technologies, and has accumulated valuable experience in green and low-carbon development. China and Sweden have achieved many fruitful results in areas such as green and sustainable development. It is hoped that Chinese and Swedish enterprises will further explore the potential for cooperation, expand their cooperation to more areas, jointly develop third-party markets, and draw up a blueprint for green development, so as to make positive contributions to promoting the green and low-carbon development of the world.