Xi Says China Has Started a 100 GW Desert Renewable Project

(Bloomberg) -- China recently started construction on a massive wind- and solar-power project in the country’s deserts, President Xi Jinping said.

Construction has started smoothly on the first phase of 100 gigawatts of generating capacity, Xi said via video link Tuesday at a United Nations Biodiversity Conference in Kunming. That’s more than the entire wind and solar capacity installed in India, according to BloombergNEF.

“China will continue to promote the adjustment of industrial structure and energy structure, vigorously develop renewable energy, and accelerate the planning and construction of large-scale wind and solar projects in desert areas,” he said.

Xi also pledged to establish a Kunming Biodiversity Fund with initial investment of 1.5 billion yuan ($232 million) as he continued his drive to build a global leadership role for China on climate. 

“When we protect nature, it rewards us. when we exploit nature ruthlessly, it punishes us without mercy,” Xi said. World leaders and negotiators are expected to hammer out a deal to arrest ecological destruction over the next decade at the delayed event. 

Xi reiterated that China will release implementation plans to achieve carbon goals, without giving any further details on timing. Xi’s remarks came just over a year after he stunned the climate community by announcing that China, the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, would become carbon-neutral by 2060. Last month, he promised the country would stop building new coal projects overseas.

A recent energy crunch at home has exposed the difficulty in executing the country’s path to carbon neutrality ahead of global climate talks, known as COP26, set to be begin on Oct. 31 in Glasgow, Scotland.

The biodiversity summit, delayed by 17-months due to the coronavirus, is expected to outline what countries must do this decade to conserve natural habitats, cut plastic waste and pesticides and raise funds to help developing nations protect ecosystems. The sessions this week will largely be conducted virtually as a result of China’s stringent Covid-19 rules. The real negotiations won’t happen until next April.

China has increasingly leveraged green issues to boost its geopolitical influence. Cooperation on climate and biodiversity has become one of the key ballast stones to help stabilize relations with the European Union, after a free trade deal went sour. Last month, China told the U.S. that bilateral tensions could sink climate cooperation between the world’s two largest carbon emitters.

Yunnan’s gathering is the first major UN event China has hosted since the World Conferences on Women in 1995. State media have used the opportunity to celebrate the country’s achievement in protecting wildlife, including publicizing the story of a group of wandering elephants while glossing over the severe habitat loss that might have forced the animals to stray. 

International stakeholders and green groups have questioned the possibility of an ambitious deal coming out of the summit, complaining about a lack of access and public participation, and that a draft of the declaration was short of specific targets.

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