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GBA is a leader on supply side and demand side of green technology:UC Berkeley Professor

“The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (the GBA) has been perfectly set up. It has an incredibly active port, excellent manufacturing bases, a great university system and has been finding ways to partner with other countries and regions. That's why what's happening here is so important,” said Daniel M. Kammen, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley and the leading author of the report on global warming by IPCC (winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize), in an interview with GDToday during the 2023 Greater Bay Area Science Forum.

Kammen indicated that the GBA is a leader on the supply side and could be the leader on demand side of green technology. As a huge consumer, the GBA can demand clean energy from the China Southern Power Grid, and it has the smartest technological systems for large-scale use of electric buses and smart high-speed rail for trains. It also has two of the largest battery and electric vehicle manufacturing facilities.

According to the 2022 White Paper on Index and Data of China’s Development of its Goal on achieving peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality, Shenzhen ranked first and Guangzhou ranked third in China’s carbon neutral peak big data index.

Kammen believes that the GBA demonstrates that the clean energy is not only good for the environment but produces many jobs. One of the opportunities that the GBA has is its manufacturing base, which could bring green energy as a global resource. Regions including the Southeast Asia and the East Africa need to bring in green technology and make it affordable. The GBA could be in partnership with local companies. “The GBA has perfectly set up huge export port and clean energy base. It's time to bring what the GBA does in clean energy much more to where it is needed,” said Kammen.

China has announced that it will reach a peak in carbon emissions before 2030 and carbon neutrality before 2060.

Kammen holds that as China pushes further green energy transition, it will be possible to meet the 2060 goal of being a carbon-neutral economy earlier. “The research I'm doing with my partners at North China Electric Power University and Tsinghua University clearly shows that the faster the transition is, the better it is for the economy. It means that China may be able to achieve carbon-neutral economy in 2050 or even earlier,” he said.

“I hope to see more partnerships between companies in the GBA and the US, because it's critical for companies to work together and compete with each other. I'd also like to see more shared projects or researches among institutions and universities in the GBA and California,” added Kammen.

Reporter: Rofel

Video: Qin Shaolong, Xu Xiaoxin

Poster: Lulu

Editor: Wing, Jasmine

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