Erik Solheim, senior adviser of World Resources Institute and president of Belt and Road Green Development Institute, shared his personal insights on China's best practices in green and sustainable developments at the Wealth and Society 2021.

Here is the transcript:

Good morning to everyone. I'm really delighted to have this invitation from Wealth and Society to speak to this great audience. Thank you so much. I really feel privileged.

China has achieved so much in poverty alleviation and green sustainability

Let me take you to the first time I visited China. That was a long time back in 1984. It was a completely different land. Everyone who lived at that time will recall there were no private cars. There was just one metro line number one in Beijing. No metro even in Shanghai. There was no high speed rail. And basically, every Chinese was wearing the same clothes. In the north, they were having noodles and in the south, they were having rice, and their diet had very little variety. It was a very poor nation.

When China started the reforms in 1978, China was number 177 on the list of nations, when measured in GDP, per capita. Now of course it's a completely different China, every single Chinese abroad out of extreme poverty. China is leading the world in high speed rail or metros, the biggest market for cars. And the Chinese diet is such a variety of delicious food. There is so much to appreciate in China. The people in China, of course, are much more confident. And we see China is, again, a world power, a very important nation, and that living standards of the people of China have improved more dramatically than at any other place in world history. But this also gave confidence that China can bring everyone out of extreme poverty. China can also lead the world. Notice that the most important transition in the 21st century is to move into an ecological civilisation. I'd like to thank all of you who have contributed to this enormous positive change in China. And I want to encourage you to also be part in the next phase, that environment, transitional China and the world.

Global cooperation and concerted action

Well, a few years back, I visited the History Museum at the Tiananmen Square, the Museum of Chinese History. I was taken aback by a quote from a Chinese wise man from the 11th century, Fan Zhongyan. He said we should all be the first to bear the hardships of this world and we should be the last to enjoy the comforts of this world. All of us never truly lived up to this enormous demand. That's to say it’s a place to start. We need to work very hard to make the world a better place for others. And then we will also create a better society for ourselves.

President Xi Jinping himself has made some very inspiring directions for the Chinese people. He has said repeatedly that we should create a beautiful China. He has said that the green mountains and blue rivers are as important as gold and silver. Green is gold and he coined the word ecological civilisation. This is the direction we need to go. Of course, we know that the challenges are enormous. We have huge pollution. We are destroying nature at high speed. And we have climate change as a major issue for humanity in this century. So the challenges are big. But there's every reason to be optimistic because now all the major players are moving in the same direction. In the United States of America, President Biden has launched some of the green schemes ever in the history of the United States. His promise and propositions to American congress are fantastically green, and first introduced wind and solar power and electric mobility to America. In Europe, the European Union is embarking upon the green taxonomy which is a scheme to make it much easier to invest in the green and much more difficult to invest in the brown. And in India, Prime Minister Modi is rapidly moving into the solar revolution. In the end, that's the first all solar railway station in the world, the world's first all solar airport in the world. And the New Delhi Metro, which is a big metro system will soon be run on solar power. And very simply, he also launched a green hydrogen mission for India. But what everything China is now in the lead in basically every environment technology, and China is also in the lead in many environment practices. And let me focus on four areas where China is leading the world that can do even more and better.

China leads way in renewable energy and nature-based solutions

First, the renewable revolution. President Xi recently said that China will stop all overseas coal investment. It was a turning point in the variables much more important than any decision made in the climate conference in Glasgow because it will turn the entire machinery or Chinese business into renewables into solar, wind, green hydrogen and electric mobility. In the Green Belt and Road coalition, they are very happy to work with business in China to see this happening in real life. China causes about half of all solar power in the world, the possible biggest power is by far the green hydrogen. So China can contribute a lot to this green transformation of the Belt and Road countries and beyond.

On electric mobility, China is also in the lead. Very recently, I visited the mega city Mumbai in India. It is a huge city with 25 million people, five times more people than in my nation Norway. So it really matters what happens in Mumbai. They said we want to make all buses in Mumbai electric. Can we do it? Well, I told them, if Shenzhen can make 20,000 electric cabs, and 16,000 electric buses, of course you can do the same in Mumbai. And on the way to make all the buses in Mumbai electric. By the way, some of them are coming from BYD, the Chinese company in Shenzhen. And they also asked can we make 16 metro lines in Mumbai? I told them, well, the city of Guangzhou in China just opened its 18th metro line. If Guangzhou can do that, for sure you can do it in India as well. So in this way, of course, Chinese technology can be used in other parts of the world. And China can inspire other parts of the world to do much better in the electric revolution. China has about 40% of the global market for electric cars. That's a huge development. In my nation, Norway, we have done per capita even better. Eighty percent of all cars sold in Norway last year were electric. China is much bigger in size but when it comes to the per capita use for electric vehicles, Norway is now leading the world. But to get there, we can spearhead this revolution into much better vehicles which do not pollute the cities. And of course, China has brought down pollution in the main cities like Beijing, Tianjin or Shanghai. And remarkably, over the last 10 years, one part of that is to switch into better fuels in the cars.

So renewable economy, electric mobility, a circular economy are key if you want to change the world. We cannot in the long run just buy a new mobile phone whenever we want. We want to make some new model or some new technology. We need to recycle the components in the old model into a new model. Yes, we will continue to make technology better but we should not throw away what we have. We should reuse components in all plastics, to waste, to food. And there are some other we need to move into circular economy. And we understand that China has made Shanghai’s economy into a show area for better waste management in China.

And finally, we need to be better on nature-based solutions. Nature is the best way of protecting against climate change. And of course, nature’s core, if you want to protect all the species. President Xi just told the world that China will now do tree planting the size of Belgium every year from now to 2030. Belgium is not the biggest nation in the world, but it's still sizeable. So this will make a huge change. The American space agency NASA said that the greening of China is the main reason why the entire surface of the planet is now going green. And I've seen this in practice in Kobuqi in Inner Mongolia. That is absolute best practice in turning a desert into green area, promoting solar energy green tourism, renewable energy, making the people in Mongolia much richer, bringing everyone out of poverty, while at the same time making the district green and avoiding sand on the storms hitting Beijing or Tianjin. Saihanba in Hebei Province with three generations of Chinese have done tree planting in a very harsh climate. The growing season is maybe two months a year. But it's now an enormously green forest. It's now so good to see. Also protecting the species, there is huge progress in China. The number of palm springs and the number of snow leopards are coming up due to good conservation efforts. So when this is summed up, this renewable energy, electric mobility, greening of the land, and a circular economy, China is now leading the world into the ecological civilisation. Of course, China can also learn from other parts of the world, for sure. And China needs to work with other parts of the world for sure. We need to work together.

That’s why it’s so important that we avoid any attempt to go back to a cold war. I’m a bit worried with some of the signals we get from the United States. It is indicated that there are certain people in the United States who have difficulties living with the other power, the same size and same importance as United States. But that's the future. The future will be a multipolar world, the United States and China, the two biggest powers. India, Europe, Russia, and Brazil, many of these are important powers. Indonesia will be the fourth biggest economy in the world by 2050. And we all need to work together. If we work together, only the sky is the limit. We can achieve everything if we work together, business and governments, United States and China, we all work together in the world. There is an old Indian saying that the whole world is one family. That should be our inspiration to make the world a better place.

Finally, let me mention maybe the most inspiring leader in the entire history of China, which is Tang Taizong, who was the emperor in the 620s to 640s. And he had been into so many wars and understood that there is a need for peace. And he was the most people-centered leader you can ever think of. All the spirit of people first, he brought together a group of the best advisors. He even brought in the advisors who had different views from himself, even brought in advisors who have served the enemies in the past, to create a group of the best people in China to serve China which they deserved. That’s the thing we could learn from his example. Let's work together in this world. Let’s put people front and centre. Let's make sure that business thrives and that governments regulate markets, and then together we can create an ecological civilisation. Xiexie. Thank you so much.