On September 27, the 2023 Global Energy Interconnection Conference Energy-Meteorology Synergy Development Thematic Forum was held in Beijing. This forum was co-organized by the Global Energy Interconnection Development and Cooperation Organization (GEIDCO), the United Nations World Meteorological Organization (WMO) and the National Climate Centre (NCC). It aims to promote energy-meteorology integration and facilitate their close interaction in science, technology, policy and mechanism. Liu Zehong, Executive Vice Chairman of GEIDCO, attended the meeting. Zhang Wenjian, Assistant Secretary General of WMO; Chao Qingchen, Director of NCC; and Li Baosen, Deputy Secretary General of GEIDCO attended the forum and delivered speeches.
Thematic speeches were given by Dario Liguti, Director of Sustainable Energy, United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE); Emi Mizuno, Principal Scientist, Energy, Sustainable Energy for All (SEforALL); Imen Gherboudj, Programme Officer, Knowledge, Policy and Finance Centre of International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA); Alberto Troccoli, Managing Director, World Energy & Meteorology Council (WEMC); Zhai Panmao, AR6 Co-chair, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC); Xiao Chan, Deputy Director General of NCC; Jiang Tong, Member of the European Academy of Sciences, Executive Director of Institute of Climate and Environmental Governance, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology; and Lv Xuedu, Former Lead Climate Change Specialist of Asian Development Bank (ADB), Senior Specialist of Tencent Company. Their topics cover the core content of the IPCC’s AR6 report, resilient energy systems, assessment of climate risk on power supply, assessment of renewable energy sources in North Africa, climate energy services, and climate science data for sustainable development. The forum was co-hosted by Xiao Jinyu, Deputy Director General of the Economy and Technology Research Institute, GEIDCO, and Roberta Boscolo, Scientific Officer, Lead Climate and Energy Services of WMO.
Li Baosen highlighted Global Energy Interconnection (GEI) as a systematic solution to address climate change. GEI’s carbon neutrality scenario, as one of the seven illustrative pathways, has been included in IPCC’s AR6 report. GEIDCO has innovatively put forward the energy-meteorology integration concept, hoping to foster extensive and interdisciplinary partnership between climate (meteorology) and energy (power) and produce fruitful ideas, theories and scientific and technological achievements.
Zhang Wenjian emphasized that the WMO-GEIDCO partnership as a model of win-win cooperation. WMO has incorporated meteorological services for new energy into the development strategy. The meteorological community is willing to explore beyond the conventional field to provide specialized, customized and quantitative services for the future operation of new energy businesses.
Chao Qingchen stated that extreme weather and climate events as risk multipliers that aggravate the security challenges of the power system operation. In the future, the meteorological department should continue to carry out technical R&D in wind-photovoltaic-hydro power mutual support and the impact assessment of extreme meteorological disasters on clean energy development and utilization. Continuous efforts are also required to improve the national new energy and climate prediction system.
The forum was held online and on-site. More than 300 guests from international organizations, government departments, industry enterprises, research institutions and universities attended.