Insights | China leads in green industry: Former UN Under-Secretary-General

By Huang Fang

(ECNS) – Following the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China in Beijing in July, Erik Solheim, former UN Under-Secretary-General, commended China’s progress in modernization, green development, and new quality productive forces, in an interview with China News Network.

Solheim believes that China's new quality productive forces are integrating innovations in green technology and artificial intelligence.

"It would be a much more productive economy, creating more jobs, doing and making a Beautiful China and a more wonderful planet," he added.

In response to the media hype over the so-called “China overcapacity theory” facilitated by politicians in the West, Solheim pointed out its fallacy that "What we all want is overcapacity in producing more green products rather than less. So 'overcapacity green’ is good. We need more of it."

Moreover, the theory also runs counter to the international rules of trade, as global trade would not come into existence if it weren’t for an excess of supply at home, he added.

"If the United States (of) America hasn't had an enormous overcapacity in the last 100 years, it would never have become the leading technological and industrial nation in the world," mentioned Solheim.

In 2023, China's "new trio", new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products, recorded a total export of 1.06 trillion yuan (approximately $146.5 billion), with a year-on-year increase of 29.9 percent, according to the country’s General Administration of Customs.

"China is now an indispensable nation for everything green in the world," Solheim believes that China is now a leading nation in the green industry.

He mentioned that China now manufactures many of the world’s solar panels, wind power generation devices, and electric cars. In this regard, "rather than complaining," Solheim stated that the world should be grateful for China’s contribution.

An International Energy Agency report states that China commissioned as much solar PV in 2023 as the entire world did in 2022, while its wind additions also grew by 66 percent year-on-year.

Recently back from a visit to Northwest China’s Gansu Province, Solheim also shared his astonishment at the sight of large-scale solar panels there and suggested "recycling these solar panels into new products" at some point in the future.

Regarding the global green industry, he believes "the next step is to create a true recycling economic trial."

He thinks China has significant technological advantages in energy recycling and green development. "China for sure can be a devoted leader in the recycling or electronic products and so on."

In this green endeavor, Solheim believes there “still is a long way to go both for China and for everyone else."