by Xinhua writer Lin Yuan
UNITED NATIONS, July 17 (Xinhua) -- "China has very impressive results when it comes to renewable energy and developmental renewable energy, also in transportation," President of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) Ola Elvestuen told Xinhua in an interview.
After he made a statement at the High-level Political Forum on sustainable development held at the UN headquarters in New York, Elvestuen told Xinhua on Tuesday that nature-based solutions are an important way to combat climate change.
"We're definitely not on track," said the UNEA chief, when answering questions on sustainable development in the world. "We are in the climate crisis, and we have a crisis of nature. There's also crisis on pollution and marine littering, so we have to scale up and do much more in the years ahead and it's got to happen fast."
During his speech at the forum, he said that the current emissions trends imply an increased global warming of at least three degrees Celsius by 2100. "This is not a world that can realize the Sustainable Development Goals, regardless of all the other efforts we pursue."
However, there are also "a lot of positive things that are happening throughout the world", Elvestuen told Xinhua, adding that renewable energy becoming cheaper and competitive is among them.
Elvestuen said China's use of renewable energy is "leading" and "impressive," whether it's the scale of solar or of wind. What China needs to do more is to lower the use of coal, like the rest of the world, to change the whole value, he said.
China also has very impressive results in green transportation, he added. "What China has done in promoting electric cars is really important, and it's something that we need to see happen in many more countries."
Giving subsidies to both producers and consumers, China has implemented support policies over the past few years, making it one of the fastest-growing New Energy Vehicle (NEV) markets. Last year, the country's NEV sales soared 61.74 percent to 1.26 million units, according to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, and the electric vehicle sales soared 50.8 percent to 984,000.
One thing is the private car, while the other part which is vitally important is buses, according to Elvestuen. "The way that Chinese cities have adopted the use of electric buses is also quite impressive in an area where China's driving the development."
When commenting on the future whether traditional vehicles will be replaced by NEVs, Elvestuen does not "just believe it," but is "certain of it."
"I'm certain that it's just a question of time, we will see that the cars in the future will go electric and they will all be zero emission,"
The UNEA is the world's highest-level decision-making body on the environment. According to its official site, UNEA enjoys the universal membership of all UN member states and the full involvement of major groups and stakeholders. It gathers ministers of environment in Nairobi, Kenya every two years.
