News

Croatia was a guest at the Forum as well as  Germany, Uzbekistan, Denmark, and the Netherlands.  Croatia's Day was held On November 26 and included a thematic Exhibition that through videos and pictures presented the beauty of Croatia and its devotion to green development. The Pavilion was wrapped in the red and white colours of the Croatian flag which looked very impressive.

President of Croatia-China Cultural Exchange Center Liu Pilato Liying-Lily: Aim of this grand event is to promote deepr cooperation between China and Croatia in the field of low carbon development.

The "Croatia Day" was organized by the Croatia-China Cultural Exchange Center and led by its President Liu Pilato Liying - Lily who said at Croatia's Day opening that the aim of the event,“ has been  to promote the cooperation between China and Croatia in the field of low carbon development, and to explore the opportunities of cooperation from an international perspective, and gather efforts for the harmonious development of both sides and mutual benefit  in line with the "dual carbon" goals and share their insights into innovative practices in achieving green transformation across multiple fields and industries.“

The audience was delighted with the performance of renowned Ana Rucner and the children's choir from Longgang, Shenzhen who performed songs like  "The Book of Songs Xiaoya Picking Wei", "Low Carbon Beibei", "Environmental Protection Accompany Me in Action" and "Ah, Goodbye Friends".  

The Grand opening of  Croatia's Day

The grand ceremony of opening Croatia's Day was attended by representatives from Croatia and China, international organizations, experts, scholars, and entrepreneurs.

H.E: Qi Qianjin, Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to Croatia, delivered a video speech.

Jun Shan, Director of the Board, and President of Norinco International Cooperation Ltd said that more projects like the Pelješac Bridge and Senj Wind Power would write a new chapter in the comprehensive cooperative partnership between China and Croatia.

President Shan highlighted Nornico's Senj wind power project which is China’s largest investment project in Croatia so far, and it is also the first clean energy project cooperated between China and Croatia. 

„The project started construction in September 2019 and connected to the grid for power generation in December 2021.  As of the end of October 2023, the Senj project has provided a total of approximately 763 million kilowatt-hours of clean electricity to Croatia, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 620,000 tons. It can meet the electricity needs of at least 100,000 local households every year“, stressed President Shan.

The Award to Norinco International

During the opening ceremony Former President of Croatia Stjepan Mesić gave an award to  Shen, President of Norinco International Cooperation Ltd his merits in promoting green development in China-Croatia relations.

Former President of Croatia Stjepan Mesić said he wished the relations between Croatia and China to be developed, just like in the past 30 years on mutual respect and interest, how together could achieve real and stable progress and build a sustainable future. 

Former President of Croatia Stjepan Mesić: Shenzhen is at the top of the world's cities in terms of its economic and technological strength and natural protection

“I am happy to be back in Shenzhen, the city that remained in my heart when I first visited it many years ago and saw its incredible care for its nature and passion for permanent technological development and innovations. Today, Shenzhen is at the top of the world's cities in terms of its economic and technological strength and nature protection.

We can see the governance of Shenzhen is extremely effective because it is a city that has a huge economic influence in China and on a global scale.

  It is a city that has a vision, programs, people, industries, and funds to build a green future for its residents, its region, and globally.

That is why I am very pleased and honoured that Croatia has its day at the "2023 Forum", whose main topic of carbon neutrality is of interest to the whole world. I think Shenzhen could be a great partner for Croatia in the fight against the consequences of climate change”, said Former President Stjepan Mesić.

Jasna Plevnik: Serious challenge to the low-carbon world coming from geopolitics

Here you can read an integral speech by Jasna Plevnik on Croatia's Day.

“Good day to everyone, dear children,

Croatia’s Day at the  Low Carbon City Forum, which is focused on carbon neutrality's goals,  making Shenzhen a low-carbon city, and its low-carbon industry internationally competitive, is an outstanding event and also beautiful.

Croatia’s presence at the 2023 Forum also highlights  Shenzhen’s ambition to strengthen international cooperation in greening and decarbonization in different fields. 

 In a broader order of things,  all those topics about we are talking today are part of the UN Agenda on sustainable goals, particularly those on clean energy, like point 7, and sustainable cities, point 11. 

Both, China, and Croatia have set up their clean energy ambitions and plans very high but still have a lot of decarbonization to do. Of course, China’s job is much bigger and more complex.

Croatia also needs to decarbonize itself and plan to reduce carbon emissions by 45% by 2030 and end the use of coal for ten years. 

This Forum confirms that the idea of  building a zero-carbon world has enormous power,

however, I would like to say a few words about how the current situation in the world impacts high-level politics, policies, and mechanisms for reaching the balance between carbon emission and absorption, or carbon neutrality. 

We are witnessing a serious challenge to the low-carbon world coming from geopolitics which strongly dominates the global economy and high-level technology. We live in a time of unprecedented events that can cause big changes in relations among big powers and consequently impact cooperation between China and the European Union. The West changes its supportive attitude to economic globalization,  its theories of free trade and market competition also suffer from geopolitics. 

Europe has been faced with the greatest challenge to its concept of peaceful life and sustainability.  The war in Eastern Europe has accelerated the climate crisis too and slowed down the EU's plans for decarbonisation. There is a devastating war in Gaza. 

We must pay attention to the fact that those ongoing wars have the power to delay action against climate change not regionally but globally and ruin the path to true sustainability which needs sustainable peace. As you all know when there is a war, it is harder to comply with the Paris Agreement on climate change or to build a developed carbon market.

The war in Ukraine has caused the EU's break with Russian gas. It seems renewables are getting stronger but there is still a big gap to fill up. 

The low-carbon industries' ability to compete in global markets could be also endangered if security issues continue to ruin the principles of free market and free trade.

Anyhow, there are many opportunities for further deepening Croatia - China cooperation in the field of greening and low-carbon development and industry.

Croatia has had the opportunity to cooperate with China on carbon neutrality goals within the BRI. As you know energy has been central to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Croatia became part of the BRI in 2017 at the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing and then I met the distinguished experts from Shenzhen's Development Research Centre. Special greetings to all of them.

In 2021, China’s President  Xi Jinping said that China would not build new coal-fired power projects abroad. The BRI has cancelled the 36 coal power plants since September 2021. In the first half of this year, over 40% of BRI energy projects announced were wind and solar. Zero for coal projects. 

Those data give optimism and hope and show there are no broken promises.

Croatia and China also cooperated for ten years within  China – CEEC diplomacy. Both models of cooperation have rapidly improved bilateral and multilateral relations between Croatia and China, and they support climate change-related projects.

In Croatia, transport contributes the most to the emission of greenhouse gases.  That might be a chance for  China’s producer of Electric Vehicles. China’s Camel Group invested in the Electric Vehicle technology of Croatian company Rimac Automobiles.

Moreover,  Norinco International invested  230 million euros in a green energy project, wind turbines near Senj. Norinco’s investment has leveraged Croatia's wind potential. 

If someone wants to invest in green energy in Croatia or to finance climate-related projects now is the perfect time. If you do not trust me on this, Lily -Liu Pilato Liying who has put in tremendous effort through many years to support Croatia - China relations in economy, culture, and people-to-people cooperation. 

 Credit for Croatia’s Day and new steps in green cooperation goes to her.  Lily is the first lady of back channel diplomacy  between Croatia and China.

Thank you all  for your kind attention. Cheers  to the green future.”