Interview: China-Australia knowledge sharing helps achieve environmental targets

Knowledge sharing between China and Australia that goes beyond resources and materials, delving into the experiences of the close trading partners, will aid both nations' energy transition to meet environmental targets, a scholar said Wednesday.

China and Australia, both greatly impacted by effects of Climate Change, are facing challenges and opportunities in their energy transition to limit carbon emissions.

"If you look a the different industries, the service based economies actually have the least carbon footprint... (requiring) the least energy demand," CBN Research Institute associate dean Wang Tao told Xinhua in Sydney.

"(Transferring) to a more consumption and services based economy, we will be able to increase our energy productivity and emit much less carbon emissions with the same growth of the economy."

Wang, who is also a non-resident fellow of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy' s Energy and Climate program, is in Australia speaking with the nation's scientists, diplomats and community leaders to provide an insight into the unprecedented pace and scale of China's environmental reforms.

"I think it is quite interesting for us to show to Australian people and policy makers what is happening in China, what are the potential transitions that are engaging in for our energy systems. We can discuss about the potential opportunities and collaboration," Wang said.

"They're also quite keen to know what would be the opportunities for Australia to be engaged in China's energy transition... in response to the need to combat air pollution and also reduce carbon emissions."

China is already a global leader in solar PV technology which Australia is accessing to help hit its own renewable targets, such as nation's largest power and gas retailer Origin Energy Ltd. packaging PV solar panels from China's Trina Solar Ltd for use with Tesla's PowerWall.

Australian climate advocates have said coupling solar PV panels with high capacity battery storage could be the cheapest way to obtain electricity within three years, creating a 24 billion Australian dollar (18.15 billion U.S. dollar) local industry if just half of the nation's households adopted the technology.

However, beyond equipment and resources, there is much more crucial knowledge and expertise from both China and Australia's experiences in developing more efficient energy markets which should be learned, Wang said.

"For example, (in) the power sector reform, there (have) been experiences in Australia to building up more efficient electricity trading systems to liberalize the power systems and energy market," Wang said.

"China is also facing the same challenges."

New South Wales (NSW) state of Australia was the world's first to develop a carbon emissions trading scheme which commenced January 2003. However, it was scrapped on June 30, 2012 upon the commencement of Australia's federal government's Carbon Tax which began on July 1, 2012, removing duplication.

The carbon tax was dumped by former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott when he came to power in 2013. Abbott was ousted in a backroom Liberal party coup by current Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull in September 2015.

"There are a lot of works we can share with each other to learn (from) each other's experiences," Wang said. Endit