The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and China Global Television Network (CGTN) have hosted a side event on green transition at the 31st meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP31) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in Antalya, Türkiye.
Titled "Global Open Class: Green Transition in Action" and held at the China Pavilion, the event brought together experts for a roundtable discussion on global climate action.
The roundtable explored how technology, leadership and communication can accelerate the green transition, and how China's experience can be adapted to the needs of different countries.
The event featured the release of four practical guides drawing on Chinese sustainable development cases and the launch of two global capacity-development initiatives. The guides addressed smart mobility, rural circular economies, climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction, among other areas.
Participants also watched the trailer for CGTN's new documentary film Path to Zero, which explores how China is changing the way it powers daily life, how its industries operate and how communities care for the places they call home.
He Guojun, director of the Jockey Club Enterprise Sustainability Global Research Institute at the University of Hong Kong (HKU), said that reliable data are essential for effective environmental action.
"First, how to address the information problem, where you need basically a monitoring network that covers almost everything, so that you have air quality monitoring, water quality monitoring, soil quality monitoring, and they have to cover all the sectors. Having that information is fundamental," said He.
Michael Adalla, senior program officer of UNITAR's Division for Prosperity, said the "Global Open Class: Green Transition in Action" side event created a space to share expertise and insights.
"The open classroom that we have done today (Nov 9), the global open classroom, has been very well received as part of sharing of ideas, sharing of expertise, sharing insights. And this is a basis of what we could provide with the developing countries," said Adalla.
Adalla also stressed that a key focus must be human capital.
"It's important to build skills at the individual level, build skills at the capacity level. The most sustainable investment is to empower people to bring knowledge into action," said Adalla.
Special event on green transition held at COP31
Offshore wind power is helping south China's Guangdong Province build an ever-wider green energy industry, a transformation that is reshaping the province's own economy while supporting the clean energy ambitions of the wider Asia-Pacific.
Guangdong has been expanding its offshore wind capacity at a rapid pace, with installed capacity exceeding 13 gigawatts by the end of 2025, the largest total of any Chinese province.
Much of that growth is concentrated in Yangjiang, a coastal city that has grown into one of the country's major offshore wind power hubs, where a single project counts 233 turbines, as one worker at a local wind farm noted.
The city is also home to China's only national offshore wind turbine testing platform, the China General Certification (CGC) Guangdong Wind Power Test Center, which was established in 2018 and ranks among the world's largest facilities for full-scale blade testing, assessing the quality and reliability of the equipment used across the industry.
"The longest blade we have tested so far is 147 meters. China is taking the lead in most large blade tests at present. China is participating in formulating new testing methods and standards," said Lin Xianshen, deputy director of laboratory of CGC Guangdong Wind Power Test Center Limited.
For the companies operating the turbines off its coast, Yangjiang's rise has been written into a steady multiplication of projects dotting the sea.
"By the end of 2025, Yangjiang's total installed capacity reached 24 million kilowatts. It is the prefecture-level city with the largest installed wind power capacity in Guangdong Province," said Li Xiang, chairperson of Guangdong Huadian Fuxin Yangjiang Offshore Wind Power Company.
Along Guangdong's coastline, wind farms, equipment makers, component suppliers and testing facilities are increasingly coming together, weaving an integrated supply chain for green energy.
Chinese manufacturers now account for more than two-thirds of global wind turbine production, and by the end of 2024, half of the country's cumulative wind turbine exports had gone to the Asia-Pacific region.
As demand for green electricity grows across Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) economies, a service center in Shenzhen City in Guangdong is helping export-oriented companies obtain internationally recognized green electricity certification.
The center is China's first government-authorized service center for green electricity and green certificates, designed to connect Chinese businesses with new energy markets across the wider region.
"Export-oriented businesses need to engage in international supply chain and industrial chain cooperation. They make up 40 percent of the customer base," said Tan Kun, deputy general manager of the marketing and customer service of Shenzhen Power Supply Bureau under China Southern Power Grid.
From offshore wind farms and advanced manufacturing to green electricity services, Guangdong's expanding green industry cluster is lending its weight to a cleaner industrial future in the Asia-Pacific.
South China’s offshore wind industry powers Asia-Pacific's green future
