HAMBURG, Germany, June 30 (Xinhua) -- China's expansion of clean energy and green industries has helped lower global renewable energy costs and accelerate energy transition, Achim Steiner, chair of the Hamburg Sustainability Conference (HSC), said on Tuesday.
Steiner, also former head of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), said China's modernization, industrialization and urbanization have produced "remarkable achievements," adding that the country has "begun to develop the kinds of answers that much of the rest of the world today has also become a beneficiary to."
Steiner made the remarks at the HSC 2026, which was held in Hamburg on June 29-30 and brought together policymakers, business leaders and experts to discuss climate action, sustainable development and international cooperation.
China's efforts to tackle pollution, improve air quality and strengthen resource independence for its 1.4 billion population, he said, have reshaped thinking on future mobility.
With limited domestic oil and gas resources, China's shift toward clean energy has been structurally driven, he said. Large-scale domestic investment has lowered the threshold for renewable energy adoption globally, including technologies such as solar panels and wind turbines.
Over the past two decades, he said, China has moved from being an importer of vehicle and transport technologies to a leader in new platforms for the mobility of goods and people.
Green transition, he said, has been embedded in China's development strategy under the 15th Five-Year Plan, increasingly framed as a growth driver while also supporting exports of green technologies.
Steiner said China has both driven its own strategic development agenda and increasingly positioned green transformation as a development pathway with global implications, particularly as a major exporter reshaping price dynamics in clean technology markets.
