An international cooperation to accelerate the net-zero transition in China’s Shanxi province

With the signing of a multilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), Agora Energiewende and five Chinese organisations have formed a strategic partnership to work together to accelerate the net-zero transition in China’s largest coal producing province Shanxi. Part of that cooperation between Agora Energiewende, the Shanxi Energy Research Institute, China Energy Engineering Group, Guangzhou Emissions Exchange, Academician Valley, and Siyuan Carbon Neutral Technology will be the establishment of the Shanxi Research Institute of Carbon Neutrality and Energy Revolution, the first ever such entity approved by the Shanxi provincial government.

The institute will serve as a platform to sustain and promote cooperation between Europe and China at the regional level, thus creating synergies and fostering progress in peaking carbon emissions, achieving carbon neutrality, and supporting innovation in energy industries. The MoU was signed on 2 September at the Second Europe-China Workshop on Clean Energy Transition, a permanent sub-forum of Taiyuan Energy Low Carbon (TELC) Development Forum. Established in 2016 and co-hosted by the Government of the Shanxi Province and seven Chinese ministries, the forum is one of China’s largest and most high-profile conferences on the energy transition.

”International collaboration, including policy dialogue and exchange, is crucial for accelerating the net-zero energy transformation in Europe, China and beyond", said Frauke Thies, Executive Director of Agora Energiewende, in her concluding remarks of the event. “Our partnership and the establishment of the Shanxi Research Institute of Carbon Neutrality and Energy Revolution are a substantial step to jointly promoting innovation, developing policy instruments and nurturing market opportunities in Shanxi to move the clean energy transition agenda forward.”

Shanxi is China’s largest coal-mining province, accounting for roughly 30 per cent of national coal output. For a long time, the province’s coal-dominant energy structure and the lack of innovation capacity have seriously hindered economic and social transformation. In the last few years, Shanxi has been promoting the development of wind and solar power generation, regional and interprovincial grid integration, and energy conservation while undertaking ecological restoration and integrated management of coal-mining areas.

Agora Energiewende is working closely with like-minded partners in Shanxi and beyond to promote in-depth Europe-China collaboration on energy and climate. Its Team China primarily works to accelerate the clean power sector transformation, the industrial decarbonization, a just coal transition in the provinces and analyses energy transition policy implications for China.