Shen Nanpeng, a member of the 13th National Committee of the CPPCC. (Photo/ Xinhua)

China's goals of achieving carbon peaking and neutrality could unleash an enormous potential for future low-carbon development and boost the complementarity and integration between regions in China, Shen Nanpeng, founding and managing partner of Sequoia Capital China and a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said at the second plenary meeting of the fifth session of the 13th CPPCC National Committee on Monday.

Shen highlighted some of the areas that require attention to make better use of carbon neutrality to narrow the gap between eastern and western China.

The first is turning the western part's clean energy advantage into an economic advantage by transporting the energy to eastern and central China, where the demand for clean energy has increased. 

"The rich renewable energy resources in the west will play an important role in providing green power to the load center in the east and replacing fossil energy," he said, adding that when China achieves its goal of carbon neutrality in 2060, the proportion of non-fossil energy in electricity generation will be significantly increased. 

"However, at least at present, insufficient cross-regional consumption and power grid adjustment are still restricting the transformation from resource advantage to economic advantage in the west."

The CPPCC member called on the country to increase cross-regional allocation and construction of renewable resources and ensure that local governments in the eastern and central regions reasonably assume corresponding responsibilities for clean power development. 

"We should make full use of the east's technological capital to support the west in increasing the flexibility of power grid and peak load regulation capacity," he said.

Not leaving the west behind in the development of the carbon reduction industry is also a challenge, said Shen.

"As carbon emissions become a constraint for industrial development, the west may face problems such as higher cost of low-carbon development and declining competitiveness," he added. 

Forests, grasslands, lakes, and wetlands in the western region are significant ecological barriers of China, and the deserts and Gobi regions are important bases of wind and solar power generation.

Shen suggested that the country work on ecological benefit compensation for the environmentalists who contributed to preserving natural assets.