China's green transition endeavor contributes to the global fight against climate change and inspires other countries to move towards renewable energy, said Andrew Forrest, executive chairman and founder of Australian mining giant Fortescue, at the plenary of the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2026 on Thursday in Boao, south China's Hainan Province.
Running from Tuesday to Friday, this year's conference is themed "Shaping a Shared Future: New Dynamics, New Opportunities, New Cooperation."
While addressing the plenary, Forrest, also a member of the BFA board of directors, said China's pursuit of zero-carbon growth signals the nation takes environmental and economic wellbeing into consideration, and Australia has enhanced cooperation with China on sustainable development.
"China is going green because it understands what is happening with climate change, but also because economically it makes huge sense for China. And so I congratulate all those nations and I see them in front of me who are going to new energy, going to new materials, going to new green steel, as Australia is working hard to do with China, with huge partnerships in the making," he said.
During his speech, Forrest called on countries to join China in shifting to clean energy sources for the benefit of their own people and others around the world.
"So I ask all of us now take the lead of China, which is acting in the best interest of each of its people, to lower the cost of living and increase the standard of living. And let us all humanity move to green energy," he said.
Founded in 2001, the BFA is a non-governmental and non-profit international organization committed to promoting regional economic integration and bringing Asian countries closer to their development goals.
China's green transition powers global sustainable development: Australian mining tycoon
China's green transition powers global sustainable development: Australian mining tycoon
Global institutions are being weakened at a time when they should be reinforced, the well-known Singapore scholar, Kishore Mahbubani, warned on Wednesday at the ongoing Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference 2026 in south China's Hainan Province.
Mahbubani, founding dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy of the National University of Singapore, spoke at a BFA high-level panel themed "Injecting Certainty into an Uncertain World." He said that all humanity lives in a small global village, pointing to challenges ranging from climate change and financial crises to oil price volatility as evidence of interconnectedness.
"We are entering a new era of world history and that new era is marked very clearly. The data is there. By the end of the era of Western domination of world history and the return of Asia, all of humanity now, all eight billion of us, we used to think that we live in a very large planet Earth. No, we no longer live in a large planet Earth. We live in a small global village. And every day you get evidence that we are living in a small global village. And if you look at the challenges that we face, whether it's climate change, global financial crisis, oil prices, one village that we live in," said Mahbubani.
Mahbubani warned that weakening global governance could prove a serious mistake, but remained optimistic, saying that solutions exist and humanity can still build a more certain world.
"We are weakening institutions of global governance at a time when we should be strengthening them. And I think when future historians write about our time, they'll see it as an act of great folly on our part for failing to strengthen our global village councils at this time. So at the end of the day, even though I have emphasized that the challenges that we face, enormous, there are solutions, and we shouldn't despair. We can create a world of certainty," said Mahbubani.
The BFA Annual Conference 2026 opened on Tuesday with the theme of "Shaping a Shared Future: New Dynamics, New Opportunities, New Cooperation." It will run to Friday.
Founded in 2001, the forum has grown into a key platform for addressing Asian issues and strengthening cooperation both within the region and globally.
Well-known Singapore scholar warns of weakening global governance, stresses certainty achievable
