Energy Working Group Met with the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) on Problems Encountered in Green Power Procurement
2023-12-27 | Beijing
On Wednesday 27th December, Zhonghua Xu, National Chair of Energy WG and Amy Niu, Vice Chair of Energy WG, European Chamber, led a number of representatives from Air Liquide, BASF, BP, Covestro, Danfoss, Decathlon, H&M, Michelin, TEESS, Veolia, and Volkswagen to meet with Wei Wei, Director of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment Coordination Service Mechanism Office, Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) at the European Chamber Beijing office.
Back in October 2023, the Energy WG submitted policy recommendations on green power procurement as its top concern to the MOFCOM. Due to global decarbonisation pledges set by their headquarters, European companies’ demand for green energy has become increasingly urgent in recent years. However, the discrepancy between supply and demand is having a negative impact on European businesses—and could eventually cause them to reevaluate their investment strategies.
This meeting has been set up to better convey the concrete problems encountered at the operational level by foreign companies in this area. Problems raised by the Energy WG during the meeting included: Lack of a long-term, stable and affordable supply of green power, especially in eastern coastal provinces; Lack of transmission capacity in cross-provincial trading; Conditional international recognition of China’s Green Electricity Certificate (GEC); Double-counting of environmental attributes; Insufficient synergy between green power/certificate and carbon market; High environmental premium; Future issuance of International Renewable Energy Certificates (I-RECs) in the Chinese market after the release of the Document 1044, etc.
Detailed, pragmatic recommendations have been collected by the MOFCOM, aiming at improving the policy transparency and facilitating European companies’ access to green power, within and across provinces. The Energy WG will monitor the latest policy developments and arrange follow-up meetings in 2024.