Completely eliminating fossil fuels ‘not realistic,’ says China’s ‘Mr Climate’

2023-09-22 16:38:00

This is a strong message from Beijing two months before the launch of COP28, which will be held in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) from November 30 to December 12. Even though this umpteenth international conference on climate must, once once more, chart a path towards a world detoxified from hydrocarbons within a few decades, they will in reality remain essential, argued Thursday September 21 Xie Zhenhua, the Chinese envoy on climate.

And for good reason, the “ intermittent nature of renewable energies » like wind or photovoltaic solar, that is to say the variability of their production depending on the weather, « will require » the use of these fossil fuels for “ maintain grid stability, energy security and economic development », he assured during a forum on globalization organized in Beijing, in the presence of the European and American ambassadors to China, among others. So that the “ completely eliminate » is “ not realistic “, he insisted.

Climate: the great paradox of China

“Flexible” and “backup” energy source

This does not mean, however, that the country is giving up on its climate objectives, while its president, Xi Jinping, has committed to achieving carbon neutrality in 2060. Beijing is also showing itself “ open » to the idea of ​​setting a global objective for the development of renewable energies at the COP28, underlined Thursday Xie Zhenhua.

But hydrocarbons should, in all cases, “ serve as a flexible and backup energy source “, while technologies such as large-scale energy storage and smart grids are ” not yet fully mature “, assured China’s “climate man”.

A speech that runs counter to that of the European Commission, which hopes to rely on carbon-free thermal power plants running on hydrogen or renewable gas, but also on the flexibility of demand and the “proliferation effect” (this is that is to say the import of wind electricity from a country where the wind blows, at a time when it does not blow on its own territory, for example) in order to compensate for the intermittency of renewables, and thus turn the back to fossil fuels.

CO2 capture technologies

Xie Zhenhua, therefore, obviously does not believe in this strategy. And this, even though China is on the way to controlling 50% of the electrolyzers (these machines for generating “clean” hydrogen) in the world, displays absolute records for the installation of renewable energies on its territory, and benefits from a geography more conducive to proliferation than the Old Continent, with more wind regimes.

To nevertheless achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, the diplomat is also banking on the development of carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) technology. Concretely, it involves “catching” greenhouse gases at the exit of factories or directly into the atmosphere, in order to reinject them into the earth’s subsoil or reuse them to generate synthetic fuels, For example. The fact remains that these methods, whose economic model remains very uncertain, should not be used to justify new investments in fossil fuels, many specialists believe.

Storing CO2 emitted by factories: why this solution of the future is not taking off