Beijing Declaration: Geothermal Development is in its Prime

Today, geothermal professionals from 54 countries throughout the five continents gather here in Beijing, attend the WGC 2023, study and discuss about the exploration, development, and utilization of geothermal, accelerate the development of renewable energy, and stand together to respond to the global climate change and challenges.

As the Paris Agreement rolls out, “carbon neutrality” has become a consensus for the global community. Towards this end, more than 140 countries and regions have declared their goals for reaching carbon neutrality, making green and low carbon development a global trend. Geothermal is a renewable energy with abundant reserve, wide distribution, and reliable source. It is also clean, low-carbon, safe, flexible, and is one of important path towards achieving carbon emission peaking and carbon neutrality. Over the years, geothermal power generation is stable and long in average service hours, thus presenting a pathway for solving the intermittency of renewable energy power generation. We are glad to see that, in recent years, direct geothermal utilization such as geothermal heating, has produced substantial results in energy conservation and emission reduction. We are convinced that the role of geothermal, therefore, will become more and more important in global energy transition.

To realize sustainable and high quality development of the global geothermal industry, we will:

follow the principle of sustainable development, and raise global awareness of the contribution geothermal makes to dealing with climate change. By virtue of reasonable and efficient development and utilization, we will keep the recyclable utilization and sustainable development of geothermal steady, so as to support economic growth and people’s daily energy need.

follow the principle of opening up and cooperation, and bring about technical innovation and high quality geothermal development through cooperation. Different countries should closely work with each other, boost innovation and development in geothermal technologies together, and share this precious gift by nature.

follow the principle of fairness and drive forward the cooperation and development of the global geothermal industry step by step. Establish an international commission on geothermal heating and cooling standards to incorporate experts from various countries and establish a joint international standard system for global promotion to ensure the safety and compliance of geothermal projects.

follow the principle of sharing and win win, and deepen the cooperation in the global geothermal industry. Through joint development and utilization, we should realize resource optimization and the sharing of energy empowerment, and create more employment opportunities and financial income for different places around the world, to achieve common progress and prosperity.

Here, we would like to make requests to all the decision makers in the geothermal industry:

to strengthen the public education and policy support for geothermal. Geothermal is a globally distributed renewable energy. Governments should encourage the comprehensive and phased utilization of geothermal, and carry out various policy innovation and financial assistance.

to carry forward the innovation and development in global geothermal technologies. Investments in research and technological innovation should be increased, in order to advance the geothermal development and utilization technologies, explore new efficient utilization of geothermal, and push forward the digital and intelligent development for exploring and utilizing geothermal as well.

to encourage the transfer of geothermal technologies and knowledge. The industrial and academic community of different countries should intensify communications and cooperation, proceed with the transfer and application of geothermal technologies and knowledge under the pretext of protecting intellectual property rights, and formulate the application program and training program of geothermal technologies.

to integrate into the global energy transformation, and pursue co-development between geothermal and other clean energies. All kinds of energy-related organizations should strengthen cooperation, and explore the coordinated development and joint utilization between geothermal and clean energies such as solar and wind, to realize the complementary and efficient utilization of energies.

to carry forward the development and utilization of geothermal around the world is of vital importance to realize green and low-carbon development.

We have every reason to believe that under the attention and auspices of all walks of life, geothermal is sure to become one of the most welcomed and competitive energies in the future. We look forward to seeing the governments, the international community, the companies, and the academia to push forward the high quality growth of geothermal under common efforts, and make more prominent contributions to addressing global energy and environmental issues, and driving sustainable development.