Inclusive, Just and Resilient Energy Transition  
- GEI Solution and Practices  
Wu Xuan  
Global Energy Interconnection Development  
and Cooperation Organization  
December 2023  
Attaining carbon neutrality via green energy transition has emerged as a worldwide consensus and  
pragmatic endeavor. However, the global community still confronts many challenges. Ensuring energy  
transition occurs in a more inclusive, just, and resilient manner is of paramount importance.  
Drawing on years of multidisciplinary research in energy, electricity, climate, environment, economy,  
and society, GEIDCO proposes a comprehensive plan to facilitate the inclusive, just, and resilient  
transition of energy through global energy interconnection (GEI).  
COP24  
COP25  
COP26  
COP27  
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COP28  
Content  
1. Progress and Challenges  
2. Direction and Solutions  
3. Initiatives and Practices  
4. Benefits and Prospects  
1.1 Progress in Energy Transition  
Remarkable progress has been made in global green and low-carbon development.  
Energy transition is on a fast track.  
l Global consensus for carbon neutrality. More than  
150 countries have proposed carbon neutrality goals,  
covering 88% global CO2 emissions, 90% of GDP and  
85% of the population.  
l Green investment drives economic growth. Global  
energy investment reached USD 2.4 trillion in 2022. The  
global investment in clean energy was about USD 1.4  
Global New Installed Capacity of Renewable Energy  
trillion, with a growth rate of 12%.  
l Technology innovation plays a key role. Low-carbon  
technologies have entered a period of intensive  
innovation. The carbon emission captured by CCUS in  
2022 reached 47 million tons.  
Global Clean Energy Investment by Sector, 2017-2022  
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1.2 Major Challenges  
Three pair of paradoxes, carbon neutrality and energy security, efficiency and  
fairness, mitigation and adaptation, are intricately intertwined. Energy transition needs to  
resolve these difficult conflicts in a coordinated way.  
l Energy structure adjustment increases power supply pressure.  
Although the global installed capacity of renewable energies has  
reached 3.38TW, the highly dependence on weather hinder them  
from effectively supporting the power balance.  
l Industrial transformation is facing social equity challenges. It is  
expected that as energy transition deepens, about 5 million  
workers in the fossil fuel sector will lose their jobs by 2030.  
l The energy system is more vulnerable to external shocks.  
Many of energy infrastructures have suffered from the impact of  
Total Blackouts and Blackouts Caused  
by Extreme Weathers, 1965-2022  
extreme weathers, and the power supply security was impaired.  
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2.1 Inclusive, Just and Resilient Energy Transition：  
Connotations  
Building a modern energy system dominated by clean energy, centering on electricity,  
and characterized by interconnection, multi-energy coordination, intelligence and efficiency,  
and realizing inclusive, just and resilient energy transition are the general trends.  
Clean energy-  
l Inclusive energy transition: a process to integrate multiple  
dominant  
energies, development modes and technological solutions, and  
accelerate the development of clean energy.  
l Just energy transition: a process to coordinate energy with  
Electric-  
centric  
Interconnection  
industry and social governance to ensure everyone can get access  
to sustainable energy.  
GEI  
l Resilient energy transition: a process to coordinate the energy  
system with natural systems to enhance the resilience of  
infrastructure.  
GEI is the basic platform and global public goods for the  
inclusive, just and resilient energy transition, as a modern energy  
Intelligent and  
Multi-energy  
coordination  
efficiency  
system with advanced technology, global coverage and  
interconnection.  
Framework of GEI Theory  
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2.2 Inclusive, Just and Resilient Energy Transition：  
Direction  
Promote “three transitions” through “three synergies” enabled by GEI, which are synergies  
between clean energy and fossil fuels, energy and industry, and energy and meteorology, to  
comprehensively promote the inclusive, just and resilient energy transition and build a safe,  
economic, smart, green and open modern energy system, to achieve sustainable development goals.  
Give full play to the role of fossil energies in  
ensuring power supply and flexible regulation  
to speed up clean transition.  
Clean energy  
& fossil fuels  
Promote industry upgrading, coordinated  
development and improvement of employment  
and people's livelihood with GEI as platform.  
Energy  
& industry  
Accelerate the convergence of energy and  
meteorological technologies to build a climate-  
adaptive energy and power system.  
Energy &  
meteorology  
The Concept of GEI Promoting Inclusive, Just,  
and Resilient Energy Transition  
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2.3 GEI Solution: Energy Transition Pathway  
GEI promotes energy system transition, including transition to a clean-dominated energy production  
pattern with “wind, solar, hydro, thermal, and storage” multi-energy complementarity, an interconnected  
and complementary energy consumption pattern covering “electricity, hydrogen, cooling, heating and  
gas”, and an energy allocation system with multi-network integration and interconnection.  
l Energy production: installed capacity of clean energy  
will reach 90% of energy mix by 2050, with more than 3/4  
contributed by renewable energies.  
l Energy consumption: the global energy consumption  
will exceed 82,000TWh in 2050, accounting for 63% of  
final energy consumption.  
l Energy allocation: the GEI backbone grid will be  
established in 2050 to enable cross-border power flow of  
660GW.  
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2.3 GEI Solution: Mitigation Pathway  
The GEI scenario has been included in the latest IPCC AR6 report, as one of the seven  
iIlustrative pathway scenarios to ensure the Paris Agreement goals, which promotes the  
achievement of global carbon neutrality goal in three phases: early peak, rapid mitigation,  
and carbon neutrality.  
l First phase: early peak. The carbon emissions peak will be  
reached by 2030, and the carbon dioxide emissions from  
energy activities will peak at 36 GtCO2.  
l Second phase: rapid mitigation. The carbon emissions from  
energy activities will be reduced by 2050 to 9.2 GtCO2, down  
about 75% from carbon emissions peak.  
l Third phase: carbon neutrality. The carbon emissions from  
energy activities will be reduced by 2060 to 3.8 GtCO2, down  
about 90% compared to the emissions peak.  
Overall Society Achieves Carbon Neutrality Goal in Three Phases  
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3.1 Inclusive Energy Transition：  
Initiativesꢀ  
The key to inclusive energy transition lies in the coordination between clean energy development  
and fossil fuel energy transition, accelerating the clean energy development and supporting the  
multiplied development of new energies while ensuring a reliable power supply, through fossil fuel  
energy transition, flexible resource system, terminal electrification and other ways.  
l Accelerating clean energy development. Promote
development of wind power, PV power, hydropower accord
local conditions.  
l Advancing fossil fuel energy transition. Stable power so
can support and drive the development of as much as
times of renewable energies.  
l Promoting flexible resource system. Build a flexible resource  
system to meet the needs of short-term and long-term energy  
regulation.  
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VRE  
VRE  
l Promoting further new electrification. Promote electricity  
replacement in final energy consumption， which is more  
economical and feasible.  
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1kW Power Generation from Conventional Energies Can  
Support the Development of 3kW Power from New Energies  
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3.1 Inclusive Energy Transition：  
Practices  
UHV transmission technology promotes large-scale  
renewable development  
Coal-to-biomass transformation of coal-fired power  
generation units in Europe  
Drax Power Station (UK)  
Baihetan Hydropower Station (China)  
• Main indicator: installed capacity 16GW.  
• Transmission channel: 2000km UHVDC line (SGCC).  
• Outcome: bundled transmission of 62TWh hydropower  
and 25TWh wind & PV power.  
• Technology: 100% coal-to-biomass replacement  
• Scope: four 6.6GW coal-fired power generation units.  
• Benefits: zero-carbon transition of coal-fired power  
generation.  
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3.2 Just Energy Transition：  
Initiativesꢀ  
The key to just energy transition is to leverage the synergy between energy and industry to realize  
industry upgrading and fair employment; and at the same time leverage the “bridge” role of power grid  
interconnection to promote coordinated development among regions and countries, reduce energy  
costs, improve energy accessibility, and enhance social justice.  
l Industry transformation and upgrading. Clean energy investment  
boosts 2 times of social investment.  
l Coordinated and balanced inter-region development. Accelerate  
large-scale allocation of clean energy to drive economic development.  
Declining Global LCOE of Clean Energy  
l Reduce transition cost. The energy system investment accounts for  
less than 2% of global GDP, and average marginal emission  
reduction cost is about 94 USD/ton CO2.  
l Just social development. Increase decent employment. Nearly 50  
million jobs in the world will be increased by 2050. Improve energy  
accessibility. By 2050, universal access to power will be achieved.  
Employment Opportunities Created by  
Regional Energy System Investments in 2050  
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3.2 Just Energy Transition：  
Practices  
Ethiopia-Kenya DC Transmission Project, an important  
Inner Mongolia Wind-PV-Thermal Power Plant Project  
for sustainable development  
channel for cross-border clean energy trade  
Inner Mongolia Wind-PV-Thermal Power Plant Project (China)  
• Feature: wind-PV-thermal power complementarity.  
• Industry: attracting enterprises of PV industry chain.  
• Benefits: 17,000 job opportunities for local people, and  
energy, industry, society and environment sustainable  
development.  
Ethiopia-Kenya DC Transmission Project  
• Technology:±500kV DC transmission.  
• Main indicator: transmission capacity 2GW.  
• Construction: SGCC, with a total length of 1045km.  
• Benefits: 2700 job opportunities for local people.  
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3.3 Resilient Energy Transition：  
Initiativesꢀ  
The key to resilient energy transition lies in the coordination between energy and  
meteorology, promoting the convergence and advancement of energy and meteorological  
technologies, enhancing infrastructure resilience and improving the adaptability of energy  
system to climate change through climate-adaptive systems.  
l Building climate-adaptive energy systems. Improve the  
reliability and flexibility of power systems.  
l Promoting the convergence and advancement of energy  
and meteorological technologies. Promote the development  
of 12 types of key technologies in the 4 major areas including  
climate perception, planning and operation, and multi-system  
collaboration.  
l Establishing efficient and sound policies and market  
mechanisms. Provide systematic support covering technology  
standard system and climate perception system.  
Relationship between Energy Power System and Climate Risks  
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3.3 Resilient Energy Transition：  
Practices  
Copernicus Climate Change Service Project (Europe)  
Electricity-oriented meteorological service  
facilitates power transition  
100% green power supply during Beijing Winter Olympics  
Green Winter Olympics in Beijing  
Copernicus Climate Change Service Project (Europe)  
• Content: climate data services for wind power assessment.  
• Technology:aggregated prediction of global climate models.  
• Benefits: a new service system covering multiple climate  
models, with economic income of 16.2~21.3 billion euros.  
• Content: SGCC innovated new energy dispatching technology.  
• Outcome: meteorological disasters warning platform.  
• Benefits: 0.4TWh green power supply during the Winter Olympics,  
with CO2 emission reduction of 320,000 tons.  
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4 Comprehensive Benefits of GEI  
GEI promotes inclusive, just and resilient energy transition, creates huge  
comprehensive benefits, such as energy efficiency, system security, economic growth, just  
social governance, and amiable climate and environment.  
l Energy security. 74,000TWh of clean power can be harnessed to  
meet global electricity demand.  
l Economic development. The energy systems investment totaled 97  
trillion US dollars, contributing 4.6% to global economic growth.  
l Social fairness and justice. GEI advances 17 sustainable  
development goals.  
l Environment conservation. The total carbon dioxide emissions from  
the global energy systems can be controlled within 1000 GtCO2,  
helping achieve the temperature control goals of the Paris Agreement.  
GEI can create huge comprehensive benefits, and every 1 dollar  
of energy investment can bring 9 dollars gains in social welfare.  
GEI Promotes Energy Transition and Creates  
Ninefold Comprehensive Benefits  
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“World of Energy Interconnection”  
Platform  
Jointly Promoting Green and Low-carbon Energy  
Transition to Deliver on the Paris Agreement  
and UN SDGs