- Over the years, China has made great achievements in water, waste and energy management. Taking urban sewage as an example, since the beginning of this century, the treatment rate of urban sewage in China has increased from less than 50% to over 95%.
- Currently, the legislation and law enforcement of ecological environment protection in China are very strict, and they are becoming more and more strict. In some fields, China’s environmental standards are even stricter than those in Europe.
Peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality are both environmental issues and development issues. In the context of “double carbon”, how to make use of the situation and seize opportunities has become the focus of many industries, especially for the environmental protection industry, and many enterprises have already been gearing up for it.
On July 16th, the national carbon trading market was officially launched with the opening price of RMB 48/ton. Within a short period of time, the first national carbon transaction has been successfully reached, with a price of RMB 52.78 per ton.
The launch of the carbon market plays a positive role on carbon reduction, also further intensifies the competition of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) technology.
How can environmental protection enterprises grasp the development opportunity of “double carbon”, what are the key difficulties in the commercial application of CCUS, and how to view the future development space of CCUS. With these questions in mind, reporter of National Business Daily (hereinafter referred to as NBD) interviewed Christophe MAQUET, Senior Executive Vice president of Veolia and Chairman of Veolia Asia, who mentioned that the company has been actively promoting CCUS commercial projects.
Energy, transportation and other fields should be transformed into the development mode of green low carbon circular economy.
NBD: We learn that Veolia has been working on the acquisition of Suez, and once the acquisition is completed, it will become the largest environmental protection enterprise in the world. What impact will this acquisition have on the development of China’s water industry?
MAQUETt: First of all, our business direction and strategy will not be changed. The merger will only accelerate the pace of strategy implementation, such as accelerating pollutant treatment and hazardous waste treatment, and providing services for enterprises, so as to accelerate the project layout and promotion in terms of ecological transformation, service of circular economy and energy management of enterprises. All along, these fields are the priority of our development.
Over the years, China has made great achievements in water, waste and energy management. Taking urban sewage as an example, since the beginning of this century, the treatment rate of urban sewage in China has increased from less than 50% to over 95%.
The acquisition of Suez can better integrate talents and resources, explore more effective solutions for environmental protection, better serve Chinese customers in this field, and help them achieve sustainable development and ecological transformation.
After the acquisition, Suez will be divided into two parts. Some of the businesses with a revenue of nearly EUR 10 billion will be merged into Veolia, and the retained New Suez will have a revenue of nearly EUR 7 billion.
Seen from the specific business in China, after the merger, the newly generated Suez will retain Suez’s water business and two hazardous waste projects in mainland China. Other Suez projects will be handed over to Veolia. This means that the competitive relationship between Veolia and Suez in municipal water will continue, which I believe will also benefit the whole Chinese market.
NBD: At present, the hottest topics in China’s environmental protection field are peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality. How do you view the opportunities brought by China’s “double carbon” goal?
MAQUET: Indeed, the realization of the “double carbon” goal is a great challenge, and will bring many opportunities. For example, energy, heavy industry, transportation and construction are the key fields of carbon emission, which should be transformed into the development mode of green low carbon circular economy.
In the past, our environmental services generally focused on environmental compliance, but in the future, we should shift to ecological transformation and ecological protection.
To significantly reduce CCUS costs
NBD: You just mentioned carbon emission reduction. Is Veolia accelerating the layout of CCUS? How do you view the Chinese market potential in this field?
MAQUET: There are many such large projects in China. For example, Sinopec recently started the construction of the first million-ton CCUS project in China-Qilu Petrochemical-Shengli Oilfield CCUS project. We believe this market has great potential.
However, there are two key prerequisites: firstly, we should greatly reduce the cost of CCUS, and secondly, we should find a practical way to utilize the captured carbon dioxide.
At present, the high cost of CCUS is a key obstacle to large-scale commercialization. We are currently operating a CCUS project with our partners in India, which can capture about 60,000 tons of carbon dioxide every year. If the operation is successful, we will extend this project to all of Asia.
Carbon dioxide can be applied in many fields, such as food, industry, fertilizer and new materials. Previously, we announced a cooperation project with Total Energy, to explore the use of carbon dioxide, so as to produce the next generation of biofuels.
NBD: You just mentioned that the key prerequisites of carbon capture is to reduce costs and explore carbon dioxide utilization channels. For Chinese enterprises, how to reduce the cost of carbon capture?
MAQUET: How to reduce the cost depends on the level of technological research and innovation, and also on whether we can find a later stage market for the use of carbon dioxide. We cooperate with Total Energy to develop microalgae cultivation and use carbon dioxide to produce biofuels. If there is no market for efficient and large-scale commercial utilization of carbon dioxide, there will be no means to effectively reduce the cost of carbon capture.
Many environmental protection standards in China are stricter than those in Europe
NBD: Compared with Europe and America, what stage is China’s environmental protection market in at present? How do you view the future development trend of China’s environmental protection market?
MAQUET: Viewing from our experience, the market structure of France and China vary greatly. The common point is that both the EU and China take green development as the priority of enterprise development.
At present, the legislation and law enforcement of ecological environment protection in China are very strict, and they are becoming more and more strict. In some fields, China’s environmental standards are even stricter than those in Europe. For example, in terms of emissions from coal-fired power plants, the quota of nitrogen oxides and sulfur oxides in China are half of those in Europe; In terms of sewage discharge, the standard of chemical oxygen demand for sewage in many places in China is less than half of the European quota. Therefore, these strict regulations and implementation will enable China to better achieve green development.
In addition, peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality have also been included in China’s “14th Five-Year Plan”. For many reasons, China’s environmental protection market has a bright future.
Source: National Business Daily, July 19, 2021