John Edwards is reading the English edition of Science and Technology Daily. (PHOTO: Science and Technology Daily/Zhou Weihai)

By QI Liming & LONG Yun

The global sales volume of new energy vehicles (NEVs) reached 6.89 million in 2021, a massive increase of 110 percent year-on-year — and that's not all.

China's exports of automobiles and NEVs have set new records, with exports to developed countries increasing significantly, according to 2022 World New Energy Vehicle Congress(WNEVC).

"China is driving the global green transition in the transport sector no doubt, from NEVs and the entire supply chain. China makes contributions towards meeting climate change and should be thanked and proud of that," John Edwards told Science and Technology Daily on August 26, while attending the congress.

Growth exceeds expectation

As the UK Trade Commissioner for China, Edwards believed that the most important future trend of the NEV market in China and the UK  is that the transition speed has been greatly underestimated.

"China's target is to make NEVs account for 20 percent of the entire automobile market by 2025 and as of the first half of this year, the number is already 22 percent, three years ahead of schedule. Hybrids are a transitional step towards pure NEVs, but Britain may not see such a rapid change. The sales of NEVs accounted for one in nine new cars in the UK in 2021. Sales of pure NEVs are outpacing those of conventional hybrids. As a result, the development of pure NEVs in the future may be faster than expected," he said.

Edwards said that another shows China and the UK working together on setting up an NEV policy, regulation and standard, particularly carbon accounting and carbon footprints.

More trade and investment from China

Trade and investment are the areas that China and the UK should focus on specifically, said Edwards.

"Firstly, we should expand the existing China-UK collaboration and cooperation. Many Chinese car brands have set up R&D facilities in the UK, and we hope that more companies will invest in the UK. It is hoped that more end-to-end supply chains will take root in the UK."

"Secondly, the UK is hoping to attract more Chinese original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the UK. It is the Chinese OEMs that will dominate the electric vehicle markets. Eighty-five percent of cars produced in the UK are exported to Europe. Brexit makes no difference, and there are no tariffs and barriers around British cars. So, setting up factories and manufacturing cars in the UK can better promote Chinese enterprises to go global."

"If China's automobile manufactures want to achieve international green production, then it should consider the carbon emissions generated during the sale of cars. If a manufacturer sets up a factory in Asia, and they travel long distances to sell their products in Europe, part of the emissions from car production are produced during the shipping."

"Finally, it is the next generation technologies, which is the particular area we are focusing on. The UK is the first country to bring out a national hydrogen strategy and China has also drawn up its own hydrogen strategy. Both the two countries share the same topic to exchange."

The UK has some of the best companies in the world in the whole hydrogen industry chain. He hopes to explore the development of hydrogen energy in the field of transportation, which will lead to further cooperation between China and the UK.

Tackling climate change with joint efforts

In the context of global low-carbon development, new energy plays a vital role in tackling climate change. Edwards considers that reasonable cooperation on climate change is the only way forward.

"It is not just China and the UK, but the whole world's responsibility to tackle climate change, which brings not only opportunities, but also necessities. The UK and China work really closely together. For example, the UK spent almost ten years working on the design of China's carbon markets, which is now the largest in the world," he said, adding that policy, technology and capital are three main areas that collaboration should focus on.

On policy, one aspect on which the two countries can work together is the electricity market reform. The UK has a very developed electricity market and China's electricity market still needs to make the transition to a green electricity system.

When it comes to finance, the most important area is on green accounting standards. When issuing green bonds or shares, Edwards believes it needs to make sense globally and green accounting standards are crucial to green finance.

Then comes to technology, "I have talked about hydrogen already and now I would like to talk about carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), which can produce blue hydrogen. Without CCUS, it is hard to meet net-zero emissions, something China takes very seriously. This is another area that we could collaborate on," he said.