The China Development Forum 2022: Building a Modern Energy System and Taking Coordinated Steps to Achieve Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality Goals was jointly held by the Central Committee of the China Zhi Gong Party and the Sichuan Provincial People's Government in Beijing and Chengdu cities, via video link on Nov 27.

Wan Gang, vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) National Committee and chairman of the Central Committee of the China Zhi Gong Party, delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony.

Wan, also president of the China Association for Science and Technology, said that the country must comprehensively and thoroughly grasp the essence of the requirements made at the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) on working actively and prudently toward the goals of peaking carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060; have a scientific understanding of the nature of and challenges in the building of a modern energy system; make coordinated efforts to carry out key tasks in the establishment of a modern energy system; advance the supply-side structural reform of the energy sector, follow the principle of building the new before discarding the old; promote the demand-side transformation of the energy sector through green and low-carbon development; facilitate the flow of energy in a coordinated and efficient way; inject vitality into the development of the sector by deepening reform; use scientific and technological innovation to drive the technological upgrading of the energy sector; promote the global energy transformation through opening-up and cooperation; and address the restraints on energy and environmental development at the source to provide a solid energy guarantee for the realization of Chinese modernization.

At the forum, participants held exchanges and voiced their proposals on pushing for the green transformation of the energy sector, accelerating the green development of the manufacturing industry, keeping national energy security as the bottom line, advancing the integrated development of the energy sector, building a new-type power system, and striving for technological innovation and breakthroughs in the reduction of carbon emissions.