Fostering China’s Regional Coal Transition Solutions through Sino-German Cooperation

On 4 September, the 1st China-EU Conference on Clean Energy Transition successfully took place as a sub-forum of the 2021 Taiyuan Energy Low-Carbon Development Forum in Shanxi, China’s traditional coal region. Thorsten Herdan, Director-General of the Energy Policy Department of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and Wu Wei, Vice Governor of Shanxi Province delivered opening remarks for the event. The purpose of the event was to share German and European energy transition experiences, exchange on future energy policy directions, and discuss solutions for the sustainable transition of coal regions as well as the strategic transformation of energy companies. The event attracted around100 of government and business representatives as well as experts and academics in the area of energy transition in China and Europe.

Together with Agora Energiewende, GIZ and its Chinese partner Southern Power Grid Energy Development Research Institute organized the event under the framework of the Sino-German Energy Transition project, implemented by GIZ and its partners on behalf of BMWi. The event focused on three key areas of China-EU coal transition solutions: the transition of energy private sector, the hydrogen economy, and distributed renewable energy.

At the event, world-leading energy corporates such as Total and Siemens shared their transition experiences and insights on how local companies engaged in the coal industry chain can develop their transition strategies, including boosting technology innovation, exploring new business models and finding economic growth areas.  Experts from Chinese and international thinks tanks, investment and consulting companies shared insightful opinions during the panel discussion on Clean energy transition strategies for coal corporates in the industry chain.

Experts from China, Germany and other leading international energy think tanks shared and discussed the significance of hydrogen on the pathway towards a low-carbon energy transition, the experience and lessons learned from the development of green hydrogen both in China and Europe, and suggestions for the development of China’s hydrogen industry with focus on green hydrogen.

To address the topic on distributed renewable energy development, Wang Hao, Senior Project Manager of the GIZ implemented Sino-German Energy Partnership shared the German experience by introducing the German Renewable Energy Act, the business model of citizen energy cooperatives which largely promoted the development of distributed renewable energy in Germany.

The Taiyuan Energy Low Carbon Development Forum is a professional forum approved by the State Council in 2016 and has been successfully held for four sessions so far. It has become a high-level international energy dialogue platform for sharing updated scientific and technological achievements and deepening international energy cooperation.

Provincial energy transition is one of the thematic focus in the framework of the Sino-German Energy Transition Project aiming at transferring German clean energy transition experience to Shanxi province, especially in coal transition. Agora Energiewende is leading the project from the German side, focusing on clean energy transition dialogues. By engaging provincial actors, including government, research institutes, corporate sector in dialogues on regional coal transition, energy transformation and exchanging ideas and scenarios on achieving carbon neutrality, Agora will summarize the take-home messages from the events and deliver a summary report on provincial coal transition.