At this year's annual "\\;Two Sessions"\\;, renewable energy, carbon dioxide peaking, and carbon neutrality once again became hot topics. In the government work report, Premier Li Keqiang of the State Council pointed out that China’s installed capacity of renewable energy exceeded one billion kW in 2021. He&\\;nbsp\\;also vowed that China will step up work on carbon dioxide emission peaking and carbon neutrality in 2022 in an orderly manner, and press ahead with the energy revolution. In the process, "\\;promoting the planning and construction of large-scale wind and solar power bases and their supporting regulatory power sources, strengthening the construction of pumped storage power stations, and improving the absorptive capacity of power grids&\\;nbsp\\;for renewable energy"\\; will become a key area of work.To further support the development of renewable energy, China has made it clear that "\\;incremental renewable energy and energy used for the production of raw materials will not be subject to total consumption control."\\; The setting of a series of new work directions and policy objectives attests to China's firm determination as a responsible major country to honor its commitment to carbon dioxide emission peaking and carbon neutrality. This author once conducted research on Qinghai and Yunnan provinces and is very inspired by their work and achievements in the renewable energy field.Renewable energy: a transformative action for energy substitutionQinghai is rich in solar, hydropower, natural gas, wind and geothermal energy&\\;nbsp\\;resources. As early as in 2016 when General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected the province, he made the important instruction to "\\;build Qinghai into an important national new energy industry base"\\;. In recent years, Qinghai Province has upgraded its renewable energy industry in both scale and quality through science and technology innovation and major projects. By the end of 2021, its installed capacity of renewable energy reached 38.93 million kW, recording the average annual growth of more than 20% and bringing the proportion of renewable energy in its energy mix from 80% in 2015 to more than 90.8%. All the new installed capacities in Qinghai Province in the past five years came from renewable energy. Qinghai now ranks first in China in terms of the proportion of renewable energy in overall generating capacity. It is also the first province in the country to have over half of its power output coming from new energy.Besides, Qinghai has also proactively promoted the supply of renewable energy to other parts of the country, assisting them in energy conservation and emission reduction. It has built the world's first UHV renewable energy transfer line. According to statistics from State Grid Qinghai Electric Power Company, the Qinghai-Henan DC Power Transfer Line supplies 40 billion kWh of clean electricity to Central China every year, which can reduce smoke dust emissions by 14,000 tons, sulfur dioxide emissions by 90,000 tons, nitrogen oxide emissions by 94,000 tons, and carbon dioxide emissions by 29.6 million tons.Home to about 20% of China’s total renewable energy, Yunnan has a resources enrichment five times above the national average. Among its various renewable energy resource reserves, hydropower resources have the biggest share. Six well-known river systems, including the Jinsha, Lancang, Nujiang, Red River, Pearl River and Irrawaddy, all flow through Yunnan, giving the province superior development conditions and a hydropower reserve of approximately 100 million kW, the third largest in China. These rivers have a developable generating capacity of 90 million kW, the second largest in the country. As one of Yunnan’s “Three Energy Pillars”, renewable energy has become a pillar industry for the economic and social development of the province. According to figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics of China, Yunnan generated 319.27 billion kWh of electricity from January to November. In total, 254.93 billion kWh was hydropower, accounting for about 79.85% of the overall power output in the province. The Jinsha River Hydropower Base and the Lancang River Mainstream Hydropower Base are now members of China's "\\;TOP13 Hydropower Base Construction Plan."\\; Besides supporting local power consumption, Yunnan is an important contributing province of China's "\\;West-East Power Transmission Project"\\;, contributing 45% of its annual power output, with Guangdong Province as the main recipient. Data from the Kunming Power Trading Center show that Yunnan Yundian provided 130 billion kWh of electricity to Guangdong in 2021. The large-scale supply of renewable energy is a prominent manifestation of Yunnan's response to China's carbon dioxide emission peaking and carbon neutrality strategy and its proactive efforts to share its achievements of green development and alleviate the energy supply shortage in East China.Green industry: the inevitable choice for high-quality developmentBuilding Qinghai into a national highland of clean energy industry development is one of the major tasks that General Secretary Xi Jinping has assigned to the province. It is also an opportunity of the times that the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China has given to Qinghai. In recent years, Qinghai Province has successively established the Qinghai Photovoltaic Industry Research Center, the Qinghai New Energy Big Data Innovation Platform, as well as China's first 100MW photovoltaic power generation demonstration base, and implemented the world's largest water and solar energy complementarity project, and China's first large-scale solar thermal power generation project with entirely homegrown core technologies. From building research platforms to making breakthroughs in key technologies, Qinghai has continuously overcome development bottlenecks, encouraged enterprises to strengthen science and technology innovation and develop their own intellectual property rights and patents, promoted the research and development of high and new technologies in the renewable energy industry, and established national and even world-class renewable energy industrial clusters around clean energy development, operation and storage systems. Meanwhile, there is also a need to bring energy-consuming high technology industries to Qinghai. For example, during the 14th&\\;nbsp\\;Five-Year Plan Period, the Hainan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture will build the two national centers of "\\;big data reserve"\\; and "\\;big data disaster recovery"\\;, and work with Huawei to establish a highland of big data industry development. The goal is to make the prefecture a "\\;regional big data industrial center on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau"\\; supported by China's own intellectual property rights and 100% renewable energy. Renewable energy application scenarios have also been developing fast. From 2017 to 2020, Qinghai successively staged the "\\;Green Power 7-, 9-, 15- and 31-Day"\\; and the "\\;Sanjiangyuan Green Power 100-Day"\\; activities, attracting the participation of all walks of life and encouraging the use of clean energy for power supply in industrial production and everyday life. Through these efforts, Qinghai has set a new world record for renewable energy power supply. In the future, the province will kick start a clean energy substitution initiative, develop the five areas&\\;nbsp\\;of electric energy substitution, clean heating, green transportation, green hydrogen application, and urban and rural energy consumption, and promote the low-carbon transformation for both its economy and society.Yunnan Province has been making efforts to leverage its resource endowment, tap into the new drivers of green development, establish a new pattern of green development, and build up new advantages in green development. Renewable energy has now become the largest industry in Yunnan. During the 14th&\\;nbsp\\;Five-Year Plan Period, Yunnan will prioritize the development of green energy, accelerate the construction of national hydropower bases at Jinsha, Lancang and other rivers, strengthen the construction of integrated power generation bases that utilize hydropower, wind and solar energies in a complementary way, and lead the development of relevant industrial clusters. Focusing on hydropower development, Yunnan will also accelerate the construction planning of green smart grids, energy Internet and other facilities, carry out the integrated construction of "\\;sources, grids and loads"\\;, and improve its energy production, supply, marketing and storage system. Building itself into a world-class "\\;green energy brand"\\; will be a key task for Yunnan. Continuous efforts have been made to promote the deep integration of the green energy strategy and the advanced green manufacturing industry, boost the development of industrial clusters centering around green silicon, green aluminum, petroleum refinery and other industries, and extend the industrial chains. In addition, Yunnan has continuously extended the green industrial system at both ends. New industrial projects including new energy batteries and new energy vehicles are now under planning and promotion.Source: Li Jian, Research Professor, Institute of Urban and Demographic Studies, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences