{ NCSD News Release, December 11, 2020, Washington DC}
The 2020 China International Energy Conference was held on the 11th of December, 2020 co-hosted by China Overseas Development Association and China Petroleum Circulation Association. NCSD is proud to support such a dynamic energy conference. The conference marked an important milestone and begins both a new year and a new beginning for China and United States. The New Year 2021 is an important year and one of renewal and appreciation of the value of international cooperation towards shared objectives.
China has undertaken a bold and realistic assessment of the “state of our shared global climate” and has challenged all to do more, in this, the era of climate action to fix the problems. Specific steps that build on China’s vision and direction on Carbon Neutrality is represented by the highly innovative GH&M Greater Bay Area International Energy Transaction Center establishment in 2019 and continues to grow in 2020; during the pandemic period.
Neil Bush, Chairman of the George H.W. Bush Foundation in Houston, Texas said in his message to the conference “The theme of the conference is “Focus on the Post-Pandemic Era, New Thinking of the Global Energy Transformation”. This is a timely subject. The global pandemic is showing us that countries across the globe need to be better connected, that when it comes to health, countries need to return to our common humanity to exchange information, learn from one another, to collaborate in developing tests, vaccines, and cures. In the same way, energy is a critical resource for sustaining higher standards of living for more citizens”.
The conference invited leaders and experts from relevant state agencies, institutions and industry professionals to share new ideas of transparent trade, small to medium business collaboration, AI and IOT driven clean energy production and supply chain management, digital transformation and to explore new opportunities that will help economic recovery and future development in the post-epidemic period.
Mitchell Stanley, Chairman of National Center for Sustainable Development in Washington DC, in his remarks at the conference said: “This conference marks an important milestone and begins a new year and a new beginning both for China and United States. Specific steps that build on China’s vision and direction on Carbon Neutrality is represented by the highly innovative GH&M Greater Bay Area International Energy Transaction Center launched and the center will help assure that the petroleum sector is doing its share to address its contribution to climate change and to quickly push for the use of existing global product solutions that can materially reduce the environmental impact of petroleum shipment, storage and use.”
This conference hosted a series of talks and presented number of projects that are conducive to cooperation on an international stage. Highlights included the trial operation of the GH&M Greater Bay Area International Energy Transaction Center energy trading platform. Mr. Bush further stated that “Developing an International Energy Mall and launching a digital energy trading platform will go a long way towards promoting freer, more efficient trade in important energy and chemical resources. I’m excited that this platform will allow smaller producers from the US and other countries to find a market for their products in China. Reducing the role of the middleman, directly connecting producers with buyers, transparency, and more efficient pricing and distribution will be tremendous breakthroughs for China and for global distribution of vital resources and anything that makes the connection between the US and China deeper is positive. My father former President George H.W. Bush often stated that the US China bilateral relationship is the most important bilateral relationship in the world. It is my hope that initiatives that are addressed at the conference will lead to better understanding, more collaboration and closer ties between our two great countries.”
“To facilitate support for the Greater Bay Area International Energy Transaction Center activity, today our representative in Beijing will execute a strategic agreement to support in three fundamental areas: First, we will facilitate independent United States and other countries’ energy producers, small to medium energy and chemical business manufacturers and trading partners to engage with the platform for product trading Including but not limited to petroleum, LNG, ethane, ethylene and other derivative chemicals; Second, we will initiate establishing the US counterpart of the GH&M platform in Houston, Texas, the energy center of the world; Third, we will support the next generation AI based trading technology core platform to be applied to the existing GH&M platform to showcase technology collaboration and make the platform a complete international AI based digital trading platform as envisioned by its founders”, added Mitchell Stanley.
In 2021, NCSD along with its partners the Energy Investment Professional Committee of the Investment Association of China, and the George H.W. Bush Foundation in Houston, Texas led by the late President Bush’s son Neil Bush, will introduce Stera Energy, a new innovative gravity-based energy storage solution platform to China. Gravity-based energy storage is an elegant solution befitting China’s social culture, the objective of Carbon Neutrality and its long familiarity with the dynamics of the natural world.
Simply put, the technology uses gravity to produce energy when demand is high and can replenish itself and store energy when demand is low. The same principle of stored hydropower that China has used for millennia. “The technology harnesses the force of gravity, which by its nature produces no carbon, yet provides baseload power to local users without loss of power encountered by far away generation and long-distance transmission” said Eric Fang, CEO, Stera Energy.
NCSD believes this introduction of new solutions will facilitate trade and collaboration between US and China in goods and services, allow Chinese energy end users to enjoy the benefit of the new energy storage platform and stimulate a path to support carbon neutrality goal.
