Biodiversity and Revolution of Energy and Electric Power Published in Beijing

In active support of the upcoming 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), a monograph titled Biodiversity and Revolution of Energy and Electric Power was released at a book launch ceremony held in Beijing on September 14, 2021.

Compiled by GEIDCO, this book is the first of its kind to expound on the interlinkage between the biodiversity and the energy and power revolution. As an instructive and informative work, the book innovatively reveals the unsustainable, fossil fuel-dominated pattern of energy development as a major underlying contributor to the biodiversity crisis, and proposes a roadmap and a package of solutions for advancing the energy and electric power revolution and biodiversity protection via Global Energy Interconnection (GEI).

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Main speakers attending the book launch ceremony were Mr. Liu Ning, Executive Deputy Director of the Office of the Executive Committee of COP15 & Senior Inspector of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China, Mr. Zhang Hai, Secretary General of Eco Foundation Global & International Director of Local Governments for Sustainability (ICLEI), and Mr. Wu Xuan, Secretary General of GEIDCO.

Mr. Liu Ning said that, biodiversity loss is a common challenge facing the world, and it is the common responsibility of the government, enterprises and the whole society to promote biodiversity protection. GEIDCO, as the first international organization initiated by China in the energy field, has actively promoted GEI Initiative, championed new development concepts, and strived to open up new horizons with the launch of this book to further promote biodiversity conservation and address energy issues.

According to Mr. Zhang Hai, Biodiversity and Revolution of Energy and Electric Power proposes for the first time a new idea of coordinated governance of energy and biodiversity, builds a bridge between energy, power and biodiversity protection, and provides a new perspective, pathway and solution for biodiversity protection. This timely book blazes new trail for the concept and implementation of biodiversity conservation, and is expected to play an important role in advancing global biodiversity governance.

Mr. Wu Xuan said that a key underlying driver exacerbating biodiversity loss and environmental degradation has been the unsustainable pattern of energy development. The key is to accelerate the energy and power revolution with clean and low-carbon development as the core requirement, and to catalyze a new energy development model characterized by "zero pollution, zero carbon emissions, and high efficiency". Such a solution to address biodiversity conservation via energy and power revolution will radically address this issue and comprehensively reduce the impact of energy development and utilization on the natural ecosystems. The book is of great significance for achieve biodiversity goals, as it aims to accelerate the energy and power revolution via GEI, promote climate and environment governance and ecological protection, and advance green, low-carbon sustainable development.

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Biodiversity is in a state of emergency across the globe. The book Biodiversity and Revolution of Energy and Electric Power reveals that globally, biodiversity loss can be attributed to five main drivers — habitat loss and degradation, overexploitation, climate change, environmental pollution, and invasive alien species, all of which are caused mainly by human activities. The unsustainable, fossil fuel-dominated pattern of energy development has a direct or indirect effect on all the five main divers of biodiversity loss. GEI development will bring about comprehensive benefits in five aspects and 16 dimensions to ecological improvement, completely change the unsustainable pattern of energy development, and reduce and eventually eliminate the impact of the five divers on biodiversity crisis.

The book also proposes six plans and 21 measures, covering carbon emission reduction, environmental pollution management, reduction of habitat loss, sustainable use of biological resources, ecological restoration and emergency protection, and innovation in key technologies for biodiversity protection. In addition, a package of feasible, practicable, and scalable models for eco-friendly development is proposed, providing a useful guide for the national governments, relevant to top-level design of biodiversity governance, as well as for enterprises and institutions in their research and engineering application.

At the book launch ceremony, experts and scholars in related fields participated in panel discussions and shared heir views on accelerating ecological protection and realizing biodiversity goals. Liu Qianwei, Deputy Director General of the Science and Technology Department of the State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC), said that this book innovatively proposes new ideas and theoretical framework and implementation path for advancing the energy and electric power revolution and securing biodiversity via GEI development, which offers a comprehensive, balanced, dynamic, and pragmatic framework for action to further promote global biodiversity governance. Zhu Chunquan, General Manager of Greater China Public Product Platform of the World Economic Forum, said that this book will help the entire energy and power sector to better understand the importance of biodiversity and incorporate it into their strategies and business management, thus facilitating China’s targets for achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Yang Jun, a professor at the Department of Earth System Science of Tsinghua University, said that this book offers valuable new perspective and insight into the impact of energy and electric power on the biodiversity conservation. The “electricity-water-land-forest” model among others proposed in the book provides new approach for balancing economic development and biodiversity conservation. Peng Kui, the Project Director of the Global Environmental Institute, said that biodiversity conservation can only be truly successful if it is integrated into the mainstream of economic and social development. This book links biodiversity with the underlying factors of energy and electric power, representing a meaningful move to converge cross-cutting subjects, with professional knowledge, detailed narration and cases. Xu Rong, an expert from the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission, said that this book systematically elaborates the interlinkage and coordinated development of energy, power and biodiversity, gives in-depth analysis from the aspects of habitat protection, environmental improvement, and mitigation of climate change and alien species invasion, and provides a useful guide and support to professionals for carrying out related studies and actions.

On September 30, 2020, Chinese President Xi Jinping, speaking at the United Nations Summit on Biodiversity, called on all nations to promote ecological civilization, uphold multilateralism, and adhere to green development, with enhanced sense of responsibility to work in concert to a beautiful world of harmony among all beings on the planet. In October this year, China will host the COP15 in Kunming with the theme of "Ecological Civilization: Building a Shared Future for All Life on Earth, to discuss new strategies for global biodiversity governance with all parties. The publication Biodiversity and Revolution of Energy and Electric Power is an active response from GEIDCO for the convening of this conference and a pragmatic action to further promote global biodiversity governance.