China' s swift green transition is benefiting the world economically while showing the way for others, said a senior climate official of the Untied Nations at climate event in Beijing on Thursday. Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), gave a keynote speech on climate multilateralism at the event held in Qinghua University, in which he credited China for playing a major role in "getting the global energy transition to a point which is now irreversible."
He also said that China's climate leadership is more important than ever in "this new era of geopolitics."
"If you look at what we've seen right here in China over the last 10 years, the speed of China's transition, its investment in green, low carbon economy is mind blowing," Stiell told China Media Group in a exclusive interview in Beijing.
He said China's green transition has not only created jobs and economic opportunities domestically, but also made green solutions more economically viable for the rest of the world.
"The sheer volume, scale, speed of what is happening here in China is driving innovation, it is driving down prices, which the rest of the world has been able to benefit from. So whether that is the explosion of electric vehicles, we see the rapid expansion of solar, wind, and much of that is driven by what is taking place here. Yes, you still have a dependence on coal, oil and gas. And you need to be transitioning away from those as far, as quickly as possible. But you are showing precisely what that looks like and how to implement through this transition," said the UN official.
UN climate chief highlights China's role in green transition
