VIENNA: Experts attending the 2023 International Vienna Energy and Climate Forum have highlighted the importance of innovative, sustainable energy system solutions in the global fight against climate change.
The forum, which ran from Thursday to Friday, brought together senior decision-makers, international experts and other stakeholders to discuss innovative ways of accelerating the energy transition and boosting global climate action, reported Xinhua.
Addressing the forum’s plenary session on Friday, deputy secretary-general of the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organisation (GEIDCO) Li Baosen proposed the building of the Global Energy Interconnection (GEI) as a strategy for realising green and low-carbon development.
GEIDCO is a Beijing-based international organisation dedicated to promoting sustainable energy development.
According to Li, GEI is an innovative energy system that combines four green concepts: power supply dominated by clean energy; power grid built on large interconnected backbone grids; electricity-dominated energy consumption; and pumped storage and electrochemical storage.
“It (GEI) is cost-efficient and can meet the demands for large-scale integration of clean energy and wide-area deployment,“ Li said.
At the plenary session, Li also introduced some best practices promoted by China and the GEIDCO to accelerate the energy transition, such as speeding up the development of centralised and distributed clean energy, building interconnected and efficient power grids, and establishing flexible energy storage systems.
GEIDCO on Friday co-hosted an event on the sidelines of the forum on the theme of “Meteorology development for a sustainable future” with the World Meteorological Organisation and Chinese tech giant Huawei.
At the event, Sergio Missana, secretary-general of the climate-focused international organisation Climate Parliament, said the building of large, smart power grids is critical for harnessing renewable energy at the continental level.
Missana said his organisation has been in talks with GEIDCO and other partners from China to facilitate dialogue between investors, legislators and regulators to promote such power grids, especially in the Global South.
Hu Hao, chief expert at Huawei’s Electric Power Digitalization Business Unit, highlighted the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in improving the accuracy of weather forecasts and enhancing the efficiency of renewable energy systems.
This year’s International Vienna Energy and Climate Forum, themed “Progress by Innovation,“ was jointly hosted by the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, the Austrian government and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis. More than 50 side events were held during the forum.-Bernama-Xinhua
