DUBAI, UAE, Dec. 20, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- "The era of global warming has ended, and the era of global boiling has arrived." In July 2023, the UN Secretary-General Guterres sounded a new cautionary note of global warming.
Against the backdrop of escalating climate crisis, the 28th Conference of the Parties (hereinafter referred to as COP28) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was rounded off in Dubai, UAE. NewLink and its affiliate NaaS (NASDAQ: NAAS), the first U.S. listed EV charging service company in China, attended the conference for the third time representing China's digital energy enterprises. Zhai Yubo, General Manager of NaaS Carbon Neutrality Business, made China's voice of seeking "zero-carbon" and green future heard in the world, from dimensions of response to global climate change, innovative new energy technology and solution and green action.
01 Team up in quest for sustainable future with "green nature"
In terms of green and low-carbon sustainability promotion, NaaS remains an "activist" all along. With presence found in a host of COP28 sessions, including business dialog on "Sustainable Development Strategy for Enterprises under Carbon Neutrality" and pavilions of "Synergy of Pollution and Carbon Reduction" and "Digital Industry and AI from Perspective of Low Carbon", it jointly held a top-level forum of "Opportunity and Practical Experience on China's Market in the Wave of New Energy" with China Association for NGO Cooperation (CANGO) and 21st Century Business Herald at China Pavilion, Blue Zone, COP28. Sharing practical experience of green and low-carbon development of transport energy, it aimed to play a greater role in achieving carbon neutrality in transport energy.
In response to climate change, action speaks louder than words. Joining COP28, NaaS pooled together powers and wits of industry organizations and companies, and delivered achievements of carbon inclusion-based public engagement in carbon emissions reduction. As a highlight of the COP28, NaaS published 2023 Whitepaper on China's Carbon Inclusion Development (hereinafter referred to as the Whitepaper). Collectively drafted by 10 organizations, including NaaS, China Carbon Neutrality Forum, Chengdu "Tan Hui Tian Fu" Green Public Welfare Platform, Wuhan "Wutanjianghu" Platform, SGS, Alibaba Cloud, etc., the Whitepaper incorporates a list of well-defined carbon inclusion principles, methods, platform mechanisms, and transaction patterns, penetrating analysis on public low-carbon acts, and a collection of typical practice cases of enterprise-community integration. It provides China's practice and reflection of promoting carbon inclusion application.
For strengthening international carbon inclusion cooperation, NaaS jointly launched the "Initiative on the Sustainability of Enterprise-Community Integration in the Middle East" with CANGO. Taking advantage of their own practices and strengths as a Chinese firm and NGO respectively, the parties took aim at diffusing carbon inclusion in the Middle East and realizing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Initiative garnered the concern and support of Shereen Zorba, Head of the Secretariat of the UN "Science-Policy-Business Forum on the Environment" (UN-SPBF) and Rashid Deloh, Senior Advisor to Dubai Chamber.
During the COP28, about 100 countries pledged to triple renewable energy capacity worldwide by 2030. In such context, Green Finance Forum of 60 (GF60) and Climate Works Foundation (CWF) co-organized the pavilion of "Triple Renewable Energy", where NewLink, on behalf of Chinese enterprises, engaged in exhaustive discussion on the background, actions and methods for fulfillment of the commitment.
During the "Digital Industry and AI from Perspective of Low Carbon" co-organized by NaaS and Alibaba Group at China Pavilion, Xu Qinghua, Head of National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC), Erik Solheim, Co-Chairman of Europe-Asia Center & President of BRI International Green Development Coalition (BRIGC), and Nebojsa Nakicenovic, Deputy Director-General of Group of Chief Scientific Advisors to the European Commission, and delegates of enterprises and research institutions such as Alibaba Cloud Intelligence Group, Alibaba-NTU Singapore Joint Research Institute (JRI), and Artificial Intelligence Innovation and Incubation (AI³) Institute of Fudan University, deliberated on use of digitization and AI in innovative practice of curtailing carbon emissions.
At the China Innovation Centre at Dubai Chambers, NaaS also showcased a wide selection of innovative products and industry solutions, including self-developed charging robot, NaaS AC Wallbox certified by TÜV Rheinland, high-power supercharger, integrated PV-storage-charging solution, smart energy storage solution, and energy management system. Navigating a zero-carbon path in transport energy sector, it serves 20% of new energy assets worldwide.
02 Write a new chapter of "green development" in transport energy sector through innovation
In recent years, frequent extreme weather, biodiversity loss and worsening desertification have posed severe challenges to ecological environment, thus bringing environmental governance to the fore. In 2023, global temperature hit a 100,000-year high. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) projects a rise in global temperature by 2.5℃~2.9℃, and the likelihood for limiting temperature rise below 1.5℃ is merely 14%. According to the Auto Environmental Guide 2023 - A Comparative Analysis of Global Automakers' Decarbonization: Recent Actions and Future Plans, carbon emissions from road transport represented 17.9% in the world's total in 2022, hence becoming one of the greatest contributors to GHG emissions.
With solid progress made in achieving "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality", carbon neutrality has become the biggest common denominator of international cooperation. Inside or outside the COP28 venue, countries, enterprises, authorities and NGOs engaged in communication, cooperation, sharing and symbiosis revolving around carbon neutrality.
On the ground of the two-wheel drive solution of "reducing carbon emissions from fossil energy in stock and replacing conventional energy with new energy" unveiled in last years' United Nations Climate Change Conference, NaaS made all its outcomes of innovative practice of seeking carbon neutrality in transport energy sector in recent one year on display during the COP28.
In order to solve problems of high energy consumption, high emission and inconsistency between supply and demand in the energy industry, NaaS, leveraging energy supply and demand statistics and digital capabilities, set up a smart "energy brain". Through integration of cutting-edge technologies of sensing, perception, forecast, decision, foundation model, and trusted artificial intelligence, the project makes well-conceived optimization of operation, transaction and macro-regulation in the energy industry, and empowers smart construction and investment, smart operation & maintenance, smart deployment, smart operation, and distributed energy transaction in the transport energy system with life-cycle digital services. As a solution of synergy co-control of pollution and emissions reduction in the energy industry, it provides robust support for win-win cooperation in racking up environmental, climatic and economic benefits.
As one of important use cases, NaaS, in collaboration with Anhui Province Energy Co., Ltd. (Wenergy), established EPORT, a compound of refueling, hydrogen supply, charging and battery swapping. It is specially designed to meet daily energy supply demand of 2,000 ICE vehicles, 80 hydrogen buses and 576 vehicles in need of charging and 300 vehicles in need of battery swapping. Compared with conventional gas stations, the project cuts roughly 16,647 tons of carbon dioxide annually, equivalent to 6,658 tons of standard coal and annual CO2 emissions of 7,230 ICE vehicles. Winning the bid for Zhejiang Anji Green Low-carbon Integrated Energy Supply Project, NaaS vows to set a world-leading model of "integrated PV-storage-charging-swapping" for heavy-duty trucks. With photovoltaic power generation, energy storage, charging and battery swapping put into intelligent and integrated use, the project gives an impetus to green and low-carbon transformation of the transport energy sector. Upon completion, the project is expected to generate 4.328 million kWh of electricity annually, saving 1,358.9 tons of standard coal and reducing carbon emissions by about 3,580.5 tons per year.
03 Practice ESG philosophy and visualize "green future" through cooperation
In 2023, NaaS has stepped up communication and cooperation with international organizations, as an act of cementing its status as "green connector" in transport energy sector. In May and November, the company inked an MOU with Dubai Chambers and China Innovation Centre at Dubai Chambers respectively, and as one of their first strategic partners, assisted in fueling UAE's renewable energy and green industries. NaaS successively got initiated into Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). As China's first new energy charging service provider joining the SBTi, it made a pledge on backing the Ten Principles of the UNGC and scooped the award of "Partnership for Early Awareness of Sustainability Disclosure Today" from International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), as a token of international recognition of its sustainability practice.
Taking green actions, NaaS, with its technology and service innovation, provides a stream of remedies for facilitating installation of green transport infrastructure, including the first self-developed charging robot, "integrated PV-storage-charging-battery swapping" model project, expressway-based new energy service network, and rural charging network. As of September 30, 2023, NaaS connected 73,000 charging stations and 767,000 chargers. In Q3 2023, the charging volume of NaaS reached 1.383 billion kWh, representing 21.8% of the public charging volume in China.
Besides, NaaS upholds environmental, social & governance (ESG) in its development philosophy. With green sources, stations and uses, the company enables green and low-carbon operation in all sectors of charging service, while setting goals of achieving carbon neutrality in operation through 100% use of renewable energy by 2028 and of recycling 100% of waste by 2030.
By setting well-defined ESG goals, and joining international organizations, NaaS achieve remarkable progress in slashing carbon emissions. In H1 2023, NaaS chopped 1.463 million tons of carbon emissions, a 109% YoY growth and in 2022, NewLink's cuts in carbon emissions surged 108% from a year earlier to 2.159 million tons. With continuous effort in promoting use of green energy in transport and further exploring the path of carbon emissions reduction, they serve to ensure stability and efficiency of global transport energy network and fulfill the vision "Empower the World with Green Energy".
The UNFCCC COP meets every year, unless the Parties decide otherwise. The first COP meeting was held in Berlin, Germany in 1995. The Paris Agreement adopted at the COP21 in 2015 marks a milestone in the course of global climate governance. It's aimed at holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2℃ in this century and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5℃ above pre-industrial levels in this century.
Ensuring continuation and intensification of the theme "Unite Act Deliver", COP28 tracked the Paris Agreement implementation with a decision on the world's first "global stocktake", thus hogging the limelight in the world. With more than 70,000 attendees, including heads of states or prime ministers, negotiators, activists, and entrepreneurs from 167 countries, COP28 is officially the largest ever UN climate summit.
Media Contact: Sabrina Wang, wangxuedong@newlink.com
