Polar bears are seen in the Arctic. (Photo: VCG)

Technology innovation will be of paramount importance if the world adopts a more ambitious plan to limit global warming to 1.5 C, and international cooperation on research and development will be urgently needed, a senior expert said.

Zou Ji, president of Energy Foundation China, made the comment in an interview with China Daily in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province on Sunday on the sidelines of the ongoing annual general meeting of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, of which he is an international special adviser.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published a special report in October 2018 on the impacts of global warming of 1.5 C above preindustrial levels.

While highlighting a number of effects that could be avoided by limiting global warming to 1.5 C, the report provides an assessment of the latest science on warming of 1.5 C as opposed to 2 C.

Limiting warming to 1.5 C instead of 2 C, for example, could result in 420 million fewer people being exposed to severe heat waves.

The need for a more ambitious plan in tackling climate change has been widely discussed: to limit global warming to 1.5 C instead of 2 C, the goal set by the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Zou said technology advances and innovation will be incredibly important if the more ambitious plan is adopted. It needs large-scale application of technologies including carbon capture, utilization and storage and CO2 removal in major industrial sectors such as steel and power generation.

It will also be necessary to take technological measures to reduce the emission of other greenhouse gases, which means more comprehensive emission reduction work has to be done in more sectors such as agriculture and forestry, he said.

“With such a target, a series of completely new technologies needs to be put into application and the world’s current economic structure also needs a more profound transformation,” Zou noted.

He said China has been in cooperation with the United States and Europe in many key sectors tackling climate change, such as renewable energy sources and promotion of energy efficiency.

“We think governments across the world should attach importance to and continue to promote technological cooperation and research and development for the global public interest to facilitate such cooperation and exchange,” he said.

There is also potential for China to carry out cooperation on the reduction of greenhouse emissions in Belt and Road Initiative countries, boosting South-South cooperation.

“China’s experiences and technologies accumulated over decades of development can be very valuable for other developing countries to explore green and low-carbon development paths suitable for them,” he said.