Green development is a crucial part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). China has attached great significance to green development in the BRI ever since the initiative was proposed. Countries participating in the BRI boast enormous new energy resources with great untapped potential and turning to new energy has become an important direction of their energy transformation. The BRI, which has been continuously advanced over past years, has offered a platform for businesses to carry out indepth international cooperation on new energy to facilitate rapid development of new energy industries, such as wind and solar power, in Belt and Road countries.

The China New Energy Chamber of Commerce has carried out systematic, indepth research on international cooperation on green and low-carbon energy within the Belt and Road. According to the research findings, green and low-carbon energy resources vary in distribution, technology difficulties and costs for different BRI countries. They have different degrees of development and utilization and priorities and layouts of international cooperation are different as well.

For example, India’s wind power industry is growing rapidly, with 35.1 GW of installed capacity in 2018, ranking the fourth in the world. India plans to increase the figure to 60 GW in 2022 and more foreign investment needs to be attracted to the sector. Turkey installed 497 MW of wind power capacity in 2018, attracting investment from Chinese businesses with rapid development of the industry. Kazakhstan’s potential for wind power generation stands at 1.82 trillion KWH per year, becoming the country’s most promising source of new energy.

Therefore, priorities should be given to countries with fast-growing wind power industry, such as India and Turkey, and investment should be increased in countries with abundant resources and government efforts to accelerate wind power development, such as Kazakhstan and Southeastern countries.

Some countries have abundant sunlight resources, creating a vast photovoltaic (PV) market. India’s PV industry has witnessed the fastest growth among Belt and Road countries, with 10.8 GW of installed capacity in 2018 and the government goal of increasing the figure to 100 GW in 2022. ASEAN countries have great potential in developing the PV industry. Thailand’s PV industry is the most developed among ASEAN countries, with strong government support and the goal of 3 GW of installed capacity in 2021. Vietnam's PV industry has ushered in a golden period, already attracting some Chinese businesses to build production bases in the country.

Generally speaking, businesses could explore opportunities in such countries as India which have fast-growing solar power industry, and ASEAN countries which have great potential in solar power growth, such as Thailand and Vietnam, through joint stock, mergers and acquisitions, building new solar power stations and setting up production bases.

As to biomass energy, Indonesia and Thailand are major global producers of biomass fuels, followed by Poland and India. India has extremely plentiful biomass resources, with the potential of an estimated 25.09 million kW of installed capacity in biomass power generation. ASEAN nations have varied means for modern utilization of biomass energy, mainly for power generation and liquid fuel. Indonesia and Thailand are major producers of biomass liquid fuel, with the output ranking top 10 in the world.

As the next step, businesses should prioritize investment on biomass energy development in India and ASEAN countries to help these countries utilize their biomass resources to the utmost extent for mutually beneficial outcomes.

Many countries along the Belt and Road are located in high-temperature geothermal zones or have volcanic geothermal resources, boasting rich geothermal resources. Among ASEAN countries, the Philippines and Indonesia have the most mature geothermal development while Malaysia kicked off large-scale exploration of geothermal resources in recent years, with government preferential policies on energy conservation giving a boost to the industry. A number of countries in Europe and Africa are tapping into their geothermal resources as well, such as Turkey and Kenya.

In the future, businesses should increase stakes in countries with booming geothermal industry and strong government support for the industry, such as ASEAN, Europe and Africa. They should carry out multi-layer connectivity in such areas as geothermal heating, geothermal power generation and geothermal industry and agriculture with these countries.

To better promote international cooperation on green and low-carbon energy under the BRI, we suggest the following measures.

To start with, countries involved should expand international industrial communication and exchanges in light of green and low-carbon development. The BRI is an exploration of a sustainable development model. When promoting the construction of the Belt and Road, China has been aligning its supply capacity with other countries’ development demand. This will facilitate Belt and Road countries’ new energy development and improvement of their energy mix. In the meantime, this has exerted and will continue to exert a positive effect on global green development. In the future, China and other countries along the Belt and Road should take green and low-carbon as a common goal, strengthen exchanges and communication, fully tap into each other’s advantages in green and low-carbon energy sphere, and expand cooperation.

Second, countries involved should jointly deal with global climate change, the most pressing issues of our time. To help achieve the goal of limiting the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, China should intensify policy communication, technology exchanges and project cooperation with other countries along the Belt and Road to innovate in international cooperation models on new energy and jointly promote green and low-carbon energy development to make it an important means of tackling climate change and global warming.

Third, countries involved should boost economic globalization and trade liberalization with green and low-carbon development as the impetus. Against the backdrop of economic globalization, green development could help Belt and Road countries explore new means of achieving trade liberalization. This will on the one hand promote sustainable growth of these countries and on the other hand help them increase their capacity in tackling environmental pollution. When promoting the BRI, China and other Belt and Road countries should prioritize “green development” in their cooperation to jointly promote green Belt and Road construction and facilitate global trade and investment liberalization.

Finally, BRI countries should quicken international green and low-carbon technology transfer.. Energy-related technology transfer and international cooperation is to a great extent a type of cultural exchange. China’s development experience on green and low-carbon energy could be of referential value to other Belt and Road countries. Technology transfer, investment and cooperation between China and other countries should be accelerated on the premise of mutual learning and respect for diversity, so as to create tailored development paths for green and low-carbon energy with multicultural background.

The author is executive director of the China New Energy Industry Research Institute and a former senior researcher with the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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