International cooperation is indispensable to ensuring energy security

Facing the current international energy situation, strengthening and deepening international energy cooperation is undoubtedly conducive to ensuring China's energy security and sustainable development. To strengthen international cooperation in an all-round way, we must adhere to the "introduction" of oil and gas resources, promote the "going global" of renewable energy, and deeply participate in global energy governance.

Russia-europe "gas" game continues to escalate. Russia's Gazprom recently said that due to the discovery of multiple equipment faults, the "Nord Stream 1" gas pipeline will be completely stopped until the fault is rectified. This move makes the energy prospects of European countries, which are already facing a "gas shortage", more worrying. Since the beginning of this year, as the energy crisis continues to worsen, the world's major countries have begun to re-examine energy security and international energy cooperation strategies, and the uncertainty of the international energy landscape has intensified.

In the face of the intricate external situation, the new situation of internal economic development and the process of "dual carbon" target energy transformation, China has raised energy security to a strategic height of equal importance to food security, and more emphasis on the rice bowl of energy firmly in their own hands. Some people believe that to emphasize energy security is to completely rely on domestic resources to ensure energy supply and completely get rid of external risks. This statement is obviously biased, and the pursuit of energy security must not be done behind closed doors.

The CPC Central Committee attaches great importance to the issue of energy security, stressing the need to strengthen international cooperation in an all-round way to achieve energy security under open conditions. Strengthen international cooperation in all aspects of the revolution in energy production and consumption and make effective use of international resources, on the premise of a primarily domestic basis. On September 1, 2022, Han Zheng, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and Vice Premier of The State Council, attended the opening ceremony of the 2022 Taiyuan Energy Low-carbon Development Forum in the form of a video, and once again said that "China is willing to work with other countries in the world to promote the construction of a new pattern of open and win-win international energy cooperation." Facing the unpredictable international energy situation, strengthening and deepening international energy cooperation is undoubtedly conducive to ensuring China's energy security and sustainable development.

Our energy endowment and stage of development require us to open the door to international energy cooperation. In order to achieve the "double carbon" goal as scheduled, China's energy green low-carbon transformation is accelerating, and the installed capacity of new energy such as wind power and photovoltaic is rapidly improving, but from the current technical level and economic conditions, the large-scale replacement of new energy for traditional fossil energy cannot be achieved overnight. Subject to resource endowments, China's foreign dependence on oil is as high as 72% and that of natural gas is 44.4%. As our country modernization process continues to advance, this high degree of dependence in the short term difficult to dissolve.

The complex and changing international situation and the trend of low-carbon energy development also require us to open the door of international energy cooperation. Geopolitical events, large fluctuations in international oil prices and other risk factors exist for a long time, and China's oil and gas import sources and transportation channels are relatively concentrated, which requires that we should seek more diversified international energy cooperation and avoid putting eggs in one basket. In addition, in order to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement, green and low-carbon has become the main theme of global energy development, and countries around the world are vigorously promoting deep changes in energy production and utilization, which is expected to reshape the international energy landscape and create a broad market space for green energy cooperation. Deepening international energy cooperation is not only conducive to expanding new economic growth points for China, but also conducive to enhancing national competitive advantages and leading the global energy transition.

To strengthen international cooperation in an all-round way, we must insist on "bringing in" oil and gas resources. A country's ability to acquire foreign energy resources is a comprehensive reflection of national strength, and a higher ability to acquire foreign energy resources means a higher level of national energy security. It is necessary to deepen cooperation with major oil and gas resource countries, strengthen cross-border oil and gas infrastructure connectivity, and ensure the security of energy import and transportation. It is necessary to steadily expand the "circle of friends", on the basis of maintaining the existing sources of oil and gas imports, continue to expand new channels of crude oil and natural gas imports, and reduce excessive dependence on a single country and region. Through in-depth cooperation of the whole industry chain in the fields of resources, technology and capital, we can ensure the healthy and sustainable development of overseas oil and gas projects, and constantly enhance China's voice and influence in the field of international oil and gas resources.

Strengthening international cooperation in an all-round way should promote the "going global" of renewable energy. Different from the non-renewable and unequal distribution of fossil energy, renewable energy has the characteristics of ubiquity, renewability, development flexibility, low marginal cost, and the key level of development and utilization lies in technical equipment. All links of China's solar panel supply chain production capacity accounts for more than 70% of the world, wind turbine production capacity is close to half of the world, energy storage and hydrogen electrolyzer costs are also in the world's lowest. It is necessary to give full play to the advantages of China's new energy technology and equipment industry, promote the coordination of all kinds of new energy to the international, vigorously promote the implementation of international clean energy cooperation projects, accelerate the international integration of China's clean energy technologies and standards, and provide comprehensive and systematic solutions for the global energy transformation.

To strengthen international cooperation on all fronts, we need to deeply participate in global energy governance. In recent years, China has made good achievements in participating in global energy governance, and Chinese people have participated in core positions in organizations such as the International Energy Forum, the International Gas Union, and the International Electrotechnical Commission. In the future, it is necessary to further enhance China's global energy governance capacity, promote the construction of a more open and fair global energy governance new pattern, tell China's story of green and low-carbon development on the international stage, and reflect the responsibility of a major country.