Chairman Fu I really want to thank you for for being here with us. You've been to, you know, many times, but it's great to have you here. I want to start by asking you about something that we discussed the last time we met in Beijing a few months ago. And you've said something that I thought at the time was quite extraordinary. We were talking about China's approach to the environment and how Xi Jinping was making that an important priority, and you obviously are in touch all the time with industrial leaders in China especially state owned enterprises And you said, if I remember correctly that you think that the leaders of China's largest companies, they are on the 500 Fortune's list really understand the importance of the environment, but they don't understand the urgency. They know they have to solve a lot of these problems, but they think they have more time than they actually have. And I wonder if you could expand on that. Tell me a little bit about what you meant by that. Okay, first row Sakura [ UNKNOWN ] For the introduction. And we're happy to join you for this fortune forum here in Yunnan Province. And this is good opportunity, to let the experts from overseas to see. What's happening here in China is basically in nine provinces. We know province is not the most developed area in China, but you can see everywhere that The impression about the environment protection and the local carbon green environment scenarios have been adopted by the government, business and people here, everywhere. Just reflecting the whole effort made by chinese people everywhere in this country As you mentioned that the last time we we talked about that steel there's a some some concerns even though that efforts was made the great in the past few years, but the Since this is a problem accumulated by many many years and they this will take some time however there's a one of the areas that i'm quite concerned that the business leaders and the pay The largest business as media on small one of the importance This is not just reclamation, or awareness of the importance of this, but the wariness of urgency. So urgency is real the problem that the business leaders need to Folks and because a lot of things are happening here very fast but this isn't we are not talking about the environmental protection for environment environmental protection itself is really determining our life quality of the people And in the future and the progress of a social society. So without this efforts, and you see that our children's or even next generation will continue to pay the cost for this. And this is not just efforts made in America Protection and also related with energy They ended the structures, renewable development and the battery C cars, everything related with this. So I believe this will become more and more adverse by the business especially if there's leaders. To figure it out, you said something that I thought was quite profound and correct me if I'm wrong but I remember you saying that the problem was the business leaders in China often assume that they've got that, these problems took 30 years to accumulate, and that they've got 30 years to solve them. And you said that's not true, they've got five to ten years to really solve them. Why is that so? Like western people. Here in China, people are most likely they want to enjoy the better life. Like the president Xi Jinping mentioned that the desire of the people for the better life, Is the party and the government's working efforts and what the battery battery life refer to not just economic improvement, but there's the tremendous need on the cleaner cleaners and the blue skies and also clean water. So there's a lot of tremendous need and the pressure from the people. So we are working here we are living here. We should be pay more attention to our own generation, our own case or grandfather our grand children. meeting earlier with the party secretary, he said something he mentioned a now famous Quote that Xi Jinping is attributed to Xi Jinping when he said, what is it? Green mountains and blue water are more valuable than gold and silver, is that it? Is that how it goes? Yes, this has become common concept by almost every common Chinese in China. But the efforts, is not that easy like we just use your lips. Yeah. [ COUGH ]. But I mean is your sense that the government is really serious about this, that this is not just something that people talk about, but it's. I think, generally speaking. Yeah. All the government leaders are very serious. yeah. But there is some problem with this. It's not because their attitudes is not there, but because of The efforts, the technologies, and the ways of a [ UNKNOWN ] in this would still need to make a big improvement. I see, I see. I'll give you a good example. Like I see you too discharge all your envrionmental pollutant discharge, and there's the management in the government, management, the use in the way like The call volume control total volume control the in each area, but this is not enough. They also need to like consumption, energy consumption they needed intensity of energy consumption to measure the whole area, the each of the company, now, they just So we married the whole area like province gave us the total volume you should not overpower this. This is not enough. This is good but not enough. So they need to make every combination, the volume, Right. The quarter, Right And also the the intense. Of the energy consumption, every company needs to measure their own discharge demand and the consumption of energy. So you've talked a little bit about the social imperative for this. We just kind of briefly discussed how the government is really getting serious and going to start to lean on companies in a in a way that we haven't seen previously in China. And that Xi Jinping is really committed to doing this. What if we can talk a little bit about the technological imperative because we spoke about this as well. And you mentioned that in many cases particularly in the traditional oil and gas industries, people are not aware of the new technologies that are becoming available that are changing their business landscape. But if they don't adjust to them, it's not just gonna be a question of not doing their social duty, it's gonna be a question of losing money and being put out of business. Or just a couple of areas that really misleading. For example, the cost for cure of the environment and especially upgrading your facilities or production. Equipment, that is what's wrong. Right, We need to spend money to operate our facilities but let's say maybe one time or a few years. But for the next 10 years or even 200 years, you continue to make big profit. So we have our own good experience in the past. We spent a lot on upgrading our facilities and in order to reduce the burning of the more energy and reducing the discharge of the waters all the other pollutants. But actually we are making better progress in our production and the profit. Why? Because you consume less and less energy. If you operate your facilities. Yeah, Bill McDonough is here. Say hi the bell, one of the great original proponents of the circular economy and its really been very active in trying to work with China to refine that concept here. One of the things bill and a couple of other of our speakers are going to talk about later in the program. Is the issue of plastics and plastics is important obviously to the oil industry because it takes a lot of oil right now usually to make traditional forms of plastic, but as Bill will explain and others, there are other ways that you can take plastic and you can use it to create energy, that you can create it without, I mean it's the oil industry in China looking at the technologies that affect Both are how we produce plastic and consume it and how that will have an impact on their business. And then Bill and his company has then greatly in generating renewables, especially geothermal, I think that will be greater to reducing the Carbon not the traditional carbon dioxide and in terms of the chemicals. So related we in the two areas one how we are not Using that much and in our normal life. Second, we need to make technology upgrading our technology to make those things are not just a pollutant. They can be dissolved Uh- huh By the soil or water. So this has a need a new technology but there is something of a programming fear in this country and there is also related next element is the CO 2. Yeah Discharge, any Chemicals related build a lot of CO2 how we treating this you to the CO2 per inch reclamation by the not just by manufacturers and and also the business related with this we need to really pay much higher attention to for the CO2. Print, a footprint and the management. We're gonna talk a lot about energy over the next three days. But I think Nobou Tanaka, formerly from the International Energy Agency is here and he's gonna talk about how the US has become interms of independence by its efforts on shale. And that's really changed the geo- security landscape. But China at the same time is emerging as the global leader in renewables. How is that affecting traditional energy producers in China? Jeff's article details the amazing ways in which electric vehicles and batteries and solar power Is coming on stream very, very quickly in China. How does that affect the outlook for China's companies. China has been done great jobs and make very big progress in the past few years. However, I believe we can make even bigger progress, in the next few years. Because you see the technology improvement making the cause to shut down tremendously. And some of the technologies like solar and even the wind, they can compete with even the power price. Generated with coal. So this can make, this will have a have a great importance to China because you're talking about the independent entity in time but independence in US, and especially we look at the geopolitics There's making China a lot of mirrors for long run. So if we have make this a strategic for China, so 10 years, 15 years, we can make independence on the energy on the renewable technology. And then this is making a lot of easier for China to to grow. And they also set up a good example, for other parts of the world. I wanna ask you one question that I think is on a lot of people's minds, and then take questions from the audience. Where are our mic wranglers here? Can I see you? Good, and maybe you wanna just go to Bill McDonald to have a comment, but let me ask this question then if we can come to So Bill, so I've just remembering 2017 January, we were also impressed when Xi Jinping went to Davos. No Chinese president had ever made a speech at the World Economic Forum before. He made this amazing speech, and everyone praised him as being a global leader, but one of the things he talked about was sustainability, and he said that the Paris Agreement Was a worthwhile. Yeah. Hard one achievement and then everybody had that had signed the Paris Climate Agreement should stick to it. And three days later, the United States swore in President Trump, as our new president. And one of the very first official acts of President Trump was to withdraw from the climate deal. So my question is this. How does that affect the way China approaches global energy issues? Does it still make sense for China to cooperate or in a world where suddenly the leader of the United States is putting America first? Is it in China's better interest to put China first? I think Chinese government and also President Xi Jinping they are working for Chinese Chinese benefit Chinese, the interests of Chinese, they are not looking for US. So this is what they are committed. It is not for others, but This is for the good of Chinese people. So China has been working very hard on this and they will continue to do this. But I think we can do better. We can do even faster. And especially obviously us too. There's a misunderstanding in the market is even in the business, and they saw this perhaps we can meet Our commitment by 2030 the tick will meet reach the peak, this is ok we can relax but this is not right. We can do even further. And then this is not the bad thing. This is a first there will good to our to 20 people and then to the to the international people. Because, this will create a big market for ourselves. I don't think this is just a cost issue. This also generate a lot of profits and other benefits. Yeah. We got two minutes, less than two minutes. You wanna make just a quick comment on this. We've got a mic right behind you there, I think. I think one of the most astonishing things we've seen in China right now is they're doing something that's very unusual and very special. They're looking at their geothermal resources, working with Iceland and companies there. And they're taking down the chimneys and putting in geothermal for the urban heating district. And this is an astonishing thing beacuse instead of just adding renewables to the mix, they're actually taking down the chimnies. This is a signal to the rest of the world that this is what we need to do. And it is happenning here and it's very inspiring for people everywhere. Yeah correct. What do you think about that. I think This green Arctic has been great has has been done great job in China and have joint venture with Sinopec. We have been developed the geothermal for our heating in the Couple of cities and making the largest service the heating provided by the thermal in China, especially with the human city, and they are planning for the next phase and they serve geothermal for the energy consumption in the area being Plant and be recognized by the government there. So lots more in the pipeline for us to watch in terms of new renewable technologies. That's true. That's it will be tremendous industry in the future, both in China and elsewhere in the world. [ UNKNOWN ] I wanna thank you. You've introduced a whole series of great topics for us to continue to explore, over the next two days. Really appreciate you being here with us. Thank you very much. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Environmental Issues Need to Be a Top Priority for Anyone Doing Business In China

Environment

Former CNOOC and Sinopec chairman Fu Chengyu explains why.
