2023 Zero Carbon Summit: Moving from 0 to 1 towards carbon neutrality and high-quality development

Source: First Financial

The goal of dual carbon has become increasingly practical and urgent.

In the past year, the complex and ever-changing domestic and international situation, coupled with geopolitical and extreme weather factors, has had a profound impact on the global response to climate change. How to continue maintaining reasonable economic growth rate on the path of carbon peak and carbon neutrality has become a hot topic.

On August 9th, the 2023 First Financial Zero Carbon Summit was held in Shanghai. The theme of this "Zero Carbon Summit" is "From 0 to 1, Towards Carbon Neutrality and High Quality Development", inviting authoritative experts and industry leaders in the field of sustainability to share their insights on sustainable development.

In his speech, Chen Sijie, CEO of First Finance, stated that at the first Zero Carbon Summit of First Finance in 2021, we solemnly proposed an initiative from 0 to 1, witnessing the development and change of the environment from a professional perspective, and explaining the challenges and opportunities contained therein to the public. Today, two years later, everyone has increasingly realized the value of deepening professional research and reporting in the dual carbon field. The past July was the hottest on record, and the environmental crisis has shifted from an abstract issue to a widely perceived phenomenon. The goal of dual carbon has become increasingly practical and urgent. I look forward to this summit continuing to provide a professional perspective on the complex relationship between climate and socio-economic development, and providing suggestions for China's sustainable development future.

In the following keynote speech, Huang Zhen, an academician of the CAE Member and president of the Institute of Carbon Neutral Development of Shanghai Jiaotong University, shared four characteristics of green transformation of energy under the goal of carbon neutrality. Huang Zhen stated that the green transformation of energy towards carbon neutrality is not just an energy issue, nor is it just a technical issue. It is a global and systemic issue. So energy transformation is not achieved overnight, but rather needs to be gradual, with policies and laws and regulations as the main driving force, technology as the strategic driving force, and the market as the important support, to carry out top-level design and scientific decision-making.

How to balance carbon neutrality and economic development transformation? Dai Yande, former director of the Energy Research Institute of the National Development and Reform Commission and director of the Energy Economy Committee of the China Energy Research Association, proposed that to achieve carbon neutrality, it is not only necessary to do a good job in energy, but more importantly, to do a good job in economy, with four wheels rotating together. These four wheels include: changing the economic development model, improving the quality of economic growth, and reducing cyclical waste; The supply mode needs to be changed, and the current energy structure needs to be reversed. Currently, over 80% of energy is fossil fuels, and in the future, 85% will be non fossil fuels; The production mode needs to change, relying on digitization, informatization, and programmability to approach theoretical energy consumption; The lifestyle needs to be reduced.

Director Leng Bing of the International Sustainable Standards Board (ISSB) introduced the international sustainable disclosure standards and the latest developments. With the global market's emphasis on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG), on June 26th this year, ISSB issued two disclosure standards for sustainable information. The first is the general requirements for sustainable related financial disclosure; The second is the only thematic guideline so far, climate disclosure. This is a standard set in the ceiling and floor area, "said Leng Bing. In the future, ISSB will concentrate all efforts to support the smooth and effective implementation of the new S1 and S2 standards, including discussing with major countries around the world to help them implement, introduce, and implement the standards.

The construction of China's carbon market is also a topic of great concern. Liu Jie, General Manager of Shanghai Environmental Energy Exchange, introduced that since the official launch of the national carbon market on July 16, 2021, the basic framework of the national carbon market has been basically completed, and key links have been preliminarily connected. Overall, 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 included in the national carbon market, the overall quota distribution will reach 6.5 billion to 7 billion tons, accounting for about 60% of the country's total emissions, and the number of managed enterprises will reach over 80000.

John Markmann, President of Grundfos China, shared the melting of ice in Greenland, Denmark and the trend of temperature changes in China. Faced with increasingly severe climate, water resources, and energy challenges, Grundfos provides groundbreaking solutions to help customers optimize water and energy management and promote sustainable development through continuous innovation, optimizing supply chains, and expanding partnerships. Markman introduced that the net zero emissions target of Grundfos in 2050 has been fully certified by SBTi (the Scientific Carbon Target Initiative), as well as the Grundfos 2030 emission reduction target.

Photovoltaics is one of the important means to support zero carbon. According to estimates from the International Renewable Energy Agency and others, 90% of global energy in the future will be renewable, with over 70% being photovoltaic and wind power, making photovoltaic a major energy source in the future. According to Wu Shengwen, CTO of Aishiwei, as of the end of last year, the global photovoltaic installation volume was 1.2TW, and it is expected to reach 18TW by 2050, which means that there is still great room for photovoltaic development. From the situation in China, the installation volume in the first half of this year has already reached 78GW, and the entire installation volume will exceed previous expectations, reaching around 300-350GW.

After the keynote speech, two exciting 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 fully launched, high-quality asset logic waiting to be restructured, Wu Qian, Managing Partner of Climate and Sustainable Development Business at Aowei Consulting, Yu Rong, ESG Business Leader for Greater China at S&P Global Sustainable1, Qu Weifeng, Chairman of the Sustainable Development Committee at Level Laiweijue and Co Leader of the Sustainable Development Standards Project Team at the Shanghai Industrial and Economic Federation, Liu Yifeng, a senior ESG researcher at Xingzheng Global Fund, and Zhou Xufeng, deputy director of the Sustainable Business Research Center at First Financial, discussed the impact of the ISSB guidelines.

The attendees believe that the official release of the ISSB guidelines can be said to be "the wolf has really come", and its essence is to transform sustainable data from voluntary disclosure to mandatory disclosure, representing the end of one era and the beginning of another. Under high standards, companies need to rediscover their sustainability issues and understand how to balance sustainable development goals with their own business goals, which also means that future business management will face a major transformation.

In the roundtable discussion on "Breakthrough before Establishment: Sustainability and Energy Transformation", Huang Chongjie, General Manager of the China region of the Grundfos Industrial Business Unit, Qi Kang, Deputy General Manager of the Shanghai Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Center, Du Huanzheng, a dual professor of the United Nations Environment Programme Tongji University School of Environment and Sustainable Development and the School of Marxism, Director of the Tongji University Institute of Ecological Civilization and Circular Economy, and Dean of the Yangtze River Delta Circular Economy Technology Research Institute (Zhejiang), Fang Yong, General Manager of the China Division of Grundfos Commercial Construction, and Ji Ya, Editor in Chief of the First Financial Sustainable Business Research Center, conducted in-depth discussions on the challenges faced in the sustainable development of high energy consuming industries such as industry and construction, as well as how technological innovation can promote energy transformation. The guests unanimously agreed that digital development will play a very important supporting role in low-carbon energy.