On September 26th, Scientific Meeting of 2013 Euro-Asia Economic Forum was held in the High-tech Zone of Xi’an. Dean Cheng Siwei, as the honorary chairman and Academician of the China Center of International Euro-Asia Academy of Science, delivered the keynote speech entitled “New Energy and Green Economy”.
During the speech, Prof. Cheng mentioned that the first industrial revolution was the mechanization revolution led by steam engine, the second was the electrification revolution led by electrical power, and the third was the informatization revolution led by information technology, mainly represented by computer and the Internet. He pointed that, “Now the third industrial revolution is approaching a climax. Personally, I think the fourth industrial revolution will be energy revolution led by new energies.” He also explained that over-reliance on fossil energies, including gas, oil and coal, has constituted two major threats on the development in the future.
He mentioned that the first threat is the fossil energies will be used up one day. The second is that carbon dioxide released from fossil energies causes greenhouse effect, which will reduce crop production, increase epidemic diseases and make the climate abnormal…
He pointed out that carbon dioxide emission of China now ranks first in the world, energy conservation and emission reduction is extremely important to China. “China makes great determination to control energy consumption and to reduce emission. In terms of developing new energy, China’s efforts are witnessed by the entire world.” He reveals that China’s investment in new energy ranks first or second in the world, and the amount may reach 5 trillion RMB.
Mr. Cheng thinks that there are several basic requirements for developing low-carbon economy: new energy industry needs to be developed, carbon dioxide emission must be reduced, and carbon dioxide should be utilized. “Take the solar energy for example, solar energy costs much higher than coal power, and China recently introduces a policy to subsidize the development of solar energy. In the long run, however, subsidizing won’t last long. The key, therefore, is to reduce the cost through new technologies so that solar energy can be widely used.”
