Potential for China to work with Germany for stable and reliable renewable energy, special envoy on climate says

Name: ‘Climate time bomb ticking’: UN chief says carbon emissions must be urgently cut
Uploaded: 2023-05-08T05:15:10.000Z
Duration: 1 min 40 s
Description: ‘Climate time bomb ticking’: UN chief says carbon emissions must be urgently cut

In Q&A, Jennifer Morgan says it’s time to ‘roll up our sleeves and get to work’ on energy and climate collaboration

The special envoy suggests ways for China to increase its nationally determined contributions, including altering emissions targets or renewable energy plans

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Jennifer Morgan was the head of Greenpeace International before she was named Germany’s special climate envoy in February 2022. Photo: AFP

Echo Xie

Published: 1:15pm, 8 May 2023Updated: 5:12pm, 8 May 2023

Jennifer Morgan, the German special envoy for international climate action, last month visited China where she had in-depth discussions with Chinese industry insiders and climate experts.

Morgan was the head of the environmental group Greenpeace International before she was named Germany’s special climate envoy in February last year. In an interview with the South China Morning Post, she talked about her recent trip to China, COP28, and the climate cooperation between China and Germany.

Q: You visited the State Grid during your trip to China. What are your impressions and thoughts?

A: The trip to the State Grid and my trip to China have really shown how far China has come, particularly on renewable energy and in electrifying its transportation sector.

On the other hand, I’m concerned about the buildout of coal. I had in-depth discussions on how challenging it is for such a large country to be having a grid that can be flexible enough to respond to different kinds of situations, for example, droughts or reduction of hydropower, like what happened last summer.

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‘Climate time bomb ticking’: UN chief says carbon emissions must be urgently cut

Germany has been working for years on renewable energy input into the grid and making our grid more flexible. We have some days that we’re at 100 per cent renewables, on average we’re at 46 per cent at the moment. Our experience in Germany is that having a grid that is based on decentralised renewable energy sources is stable and reliable. This is an area of collaboration where Germany and China could be working together more closely in the future.