Right time to deepen China-LAC energy cooperation

By HAN WENKE

Container cranes and rail-mounted gantry cranes shipped from China arrive on June 27, 2024 at the Chancay Port in Peru. [Photo/Xinhua]

Since President Xi Jinping proposed building a China-Latin America and the Caribbean community with a shared future in 2014 and jointly establishing a comprehensive cooperative partnership based on equality, mutual benefit and common development, China-LAC relations have made great strides in various areas.

The fourth ministerial meeting of the China-Community of Latin American and Caribbean States Forum, held in Beijing on Tuesday, adopted two documents — a declaration and a joint action plan — to guide overall China-LAC cooperation for the next three years and outline specific cooperation measures. The move indicates China-LAC cooperation, which has ushered in a new era of equality, mutual benefit, innovation, openness and serving the people, aims to create new development opportunities in various fields, especially in the energy sector.

Climate change is one of the major challenges facing the world today, and both Asia and the Latin American and Caribbean states are feeling its devastating effects. That's why it is important for China to further deepen cooperation with the LAC countries in the energy sector to achieve the dual goals of combating climate change and ensuring energy security.

Extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and destructive, disrupting electricity generation and supply. In 2022, extreme heat caused a prolonged summer drought in the Yangtze River basin, with hundreds of millions of people facing water shortages and power outages. Similarly, in 2023, countries such as Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia suffered power outages and the worst drought in decades, ostensibly due to the El Ni~no effect.

The effects of climate change can be mitigated in several ways. As President Xi has said, developing clean energy and promoting green economic transformation have become a broad consensus within the international community as a way to combat climate change. In fact, China is doubling its efforts to generate clean energy to ensure regular and smooth energy supply. Many LAC nations, endowed with abundant clean energy resources, too, are well-placed to develop clean energy. In this regard, deeper cooperation between the two sides will lead to more efficient generation and supply of clean energy such as hydropower, wind power and solar power.

Deeper cooperation between the two sides in the energy sector will not only help the LAC countries achieve their economic and social development objectives and improve the well-being of their people, but also contribute to the green energy transition of other countries, particularly Global South countries.

China and the LAC countries have much to learn from each other on the way to realizing the full potential of clean energy cooperation. For instance, Brazil's experience in developing green energy is highly valuable for China, while Chinese expertise in solar and wind power can help Brazil.

According to International Renewable Energy Agency data, Brazil saw a substantial increase in solar power generation, adding 15.2 GW in 2024, along with significant growth in wind and biomass energy generation, thanks to Brazil's leadership and tailored policy measures. In particular, Brazil's net metering policy called for the installation of 19 GW of solar power by 2023, allowing eligible solar power generators to sell excess electricity back to the national grid.

Besides, the LAC countries can learn from China's pioneering practices to develop clean energy demonstration regions — four provinces and one autonomous region — install wind turbines and solar photovoltaic panels in Gobi and other desert regions, build green industrial parks in areas where traditional and emerging industries converge, and establish an integrated system for green energy generation and supply.

The LAC countries also need to strengthen the resilience of their power grids by increasing their power storage capability, and improving peak load regulation as part of their clean and renewable power generation and supply mechanism.

China has been promoting smart grids to achieve optimal integration of resources over large areas while flexibly balancing and regulating resources in smaller areas. Leveraging this experience, China can boost practical cooperation to help build power grids in and promote the digital and intelligent transformation of the LAC countries.

China-LAC cooperation has ample potential to address climate change and promote energy transition. And by further opening up their markets, the two sides can foster more market-driven and enterprise-centered collaboration projects in the field of clean energy.

As such, the deepening cooperation and exchanges between China and Latin American and Caribbean countries and their peoples are creating increasingly expansive avenues for mutual development and prosperity. This partnership is poised to serve as a model of solidarity and collaboration for countries across the Global South.

The author is a senior counselor and researcher at the Institute of Energy Research, Academy of Macroeconomic Research.