(June 24): Oil and gas shortages triggered by the US war against Iran should be a lesson to countries to accelerate their energy transitions, according to China’s climate envoy.
While some nations responded by shifting back to coal, that’s only a temporary solution, Liu Zhenmin, China’s special envoy for climate change, said during a panel discussion at a World Economic Forum event in Dalian.
“In the long run, they have to speed up their transition to ensure that they have a long-term certainty of energy supply,” Liu said on Wednesday.
Liu said other countries could look to China, which has world-leading wind and solar farms, along with fleets of electric vehicles and battery-storage systems. Nevertheless, it’s also the top coal miner and has a massive oil reserve.
Despite being the world’s largest oil and gas importer, China managed to shield its consumers from shortages during the months-long shutdown of the Strait of Hormuz. Liu contrasted that with India, where shortfalls of energy, including cooking fuel, led to public unrest and losses for local refiners, which had to largely absorb price increases in order to shield consumers.
“China’s case has been an excellent example, because we have already diversified our energy sector,” Liu said. “China was more resilient than all the rest of the Asian countries, even much better than India.”
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