Gulf tour
January 17, 2012
On Monday, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao pledged at the World Future Energy Summit that China, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, would continue to promote peace and development in energy-rich Middle East and North Africa, at a time when tension between the West and oil-rich Iran is on the boil.
Wen stressed the "strategic and important position" of this region since it accounts for "over half of the world’s proven oil deposits and more than 40 percent of global natural gas reserves."
Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon emphasized the need to promote equality in access to energy as "it is not acceptable that three billion people have to rely on wood, coal, charcoal or animal waste for cooking and heating."
China has surpassed the US and has become the world's biggest greenhouse gas emitter. However, the country's premier insisted Beijing was committed to substituting polluting fossil fuels with renewable energy.
The goal is to increase the use of renewable energies from 8.3 percent to 11.4 percent by 2015.
Wen also pointed out that China has become world's top producer of hydropower and that the development of wind and solar power is burgeoning.
He also called on the advanced countries to transfer clean energy technology to poor countries. "The final solution to any future energy problem does not lie with the possession of energy resources but possession of high technology and breakthroughs in science and technology," he added.
On Sunday, Wen met King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia, China's largest oil provider. The two sides signed several economic and cultural deals including a project between Saudi petrochemical giant SABIC and China's Sinopecto build a petrochemical plant in Tianjin. They also signed a cooperation agreement for the "peaceful use of nuclear energy," as reported by official Saudi news agency SPA.
Qatar is the last destination of Wen's Gulf tour. It is believed that China has sought to ensure it can obtain oil supplies from Gulf Arab countries should Iran's supplies be disrupted by its nuclear program.
Author: Miriam Wong (AFP, AP)
Editor: Anne Thomas