Sustainable success

When Icelandic scholar and diplomat Ragnar Baldursson first arrived in China in the 1970s, it felt like his own country a century earlier.

"In the winter, there was coal smoke over the city. It was like Iceland 100 years ago, in that sense. All the peasants in the surrounding areas and a large part of Beijing were being heated with coal. So even though there were no cars on the streets, there was a lot of pollution," he says.

But four decades later, China has become a leader in tapping renewable energy, with Ragnar (Icelanders address everyone by their first names) himself part of a pioneering partnership on geothermal heating that brings the two countries together on the path to sustainable development.

"It has been extremely successful," says the 65-year-old.

"In Iceland, the houses are heated with renewable energy, almost all of them with geothermal resources. But our contribution to combating climate change is actually more in China than in Iceland because our population is small."

The environmental seeds of success were planted in 2006. That was when Iceland-based professional geothermal company Arctic Green Energy Corp's subsidiary co-established with a counterpart at Chinese oil and gas giant Sinopec Group the heating joint venture, Sinopec Green Energy Geothermal Development Co Ltd.

Ragnar, who is special adviser to the green project in China, says it is notable that Sinopec, one of the largest oil and petrochemical companies in the world, decided to join hands with an Icelandic company in developing renewable energy.

The Chinese "approached Iceland and expressed willingness to learn from Iceland's experience on geothermal utilization", he says.

China holds huge potential for developing renewable energy, accounting for more than 7 percent of global geothermal resources with medium and low-temperature geothermal resources widely available, according to industry analysis.

The joint venture in China is now the largest professional geothermal district heating company in the world, providing winter heating in many residential areas in at least seven provinces and areas and serving more than 300,000 households. Including schools, hospitals and commercial buildings, the company boasts about 2 million users, altogether helping to reduce CO2 emissions of 13 million tons. It also records heating capacity of 50 million square meters, through 750 wells and 1,200 kilometers of pipelines. The joint venture and size of its heating areas are growing at up to 30 percent a year, Ragnar says.

The geothermal partnership itself demonstrates Chinese priorities in sustainable development of its economy under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, which marks its centenary this year, he says.

The country's prescient switch to renewable energy for sustainable development is consistent with the CPC's main principles that have always encompassed equality, effective modernization and improving the lives of the people, he says.

Ragnar entered the foreign service of Iceland in 1995, when Iceland established its embassy in Beijing. He took leave from the Icelandic foreign service in 2018 for a PhD program in political science at Peking University after serving many years as the deputy head of missions of the embassy of Iceland in Beijing and Tokyo, and representing Iceland at various international venues on sustainable development when he was based in Iceland.

He is also a scholar of Chinese philosophy and one of the first foreign students to graduate from Peking University in the 1970s. His numerous books include one on the modern and contemporary history of China in Icelandic, and Icelandic translations of The Analects of Confucius and works of Laozi.

Idealism and equality

The CPC's people-oriented priorities and policies are behind its unprecedented move toward sustainable development, Ragnar says.

"In the '70s, not only China, but the whole world, had not realized the concept of sustainable development; everyone was very busy at just developing their own countries, the economies, becoming strong. A large part of the world was very poor. While the Western world was quite rich, the developing countries, including China, wanted to build their own industry. Therefore, they didn't think too much about geothermal energy or sustainable resources like solar, wind and hydropower," he says.

"But because the focus was on improving the lives of the people, China gradually started emphasizing sustainable and clean development when there was the realization that pollution was very dangerous to the people.

"China's realization came about 15, 20 years ago. In this sense, when China entered this century, it started looking at the possibilities of utilizing renewable energy.

"So, this project between Iceland and China was actually one of the first steps in accordance with this new policy of sustainable energy."

This concept of sustainable energy was not recognized by anyone in the world at that time, Ragnar says.

"But for me, it's not really surprising. Because when I came to China in the '70s, the reason why I came was that I'm a third-generation Esperantist," says Ragnar, referring to those who practice the Esperanto international auxiliary language.

"Both my parents and my grandfather were Esperantists. We are idealists. We think that everyone should be equal in international relations and people should be speaking a neutral language which makes them equal in the relationship," he says.

"So, this idea of fairness or equality was very strong with me. I was a strong idealist and when I came to China, I came to realize that Chinese people were very idealistic and there was a very strong feeling of fairness, of equality, in the whole of society."

His time at Peking University has been seminal in his understanding of those ideals, Ragnar says.

"When I went to Peking University studying philosophy, the history of China and the history of the university, I realized that at the time when the CPC was established 100 years ago during the formative years of the Chinese revolutionary movement, the school played a very strong role," he says.

"Some of the original leaders of the Party, like Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, were very idealistic. Their aim was to modernize China and they wanted to live in a fair world. Equality was very important for them," says Ragnar, whose time at the elite educational institution has been recorded under a major oral history project involving other prominent alumni.

"After World War I, China had reacted very strongly to the Western denial or unwillingness to change its relations with the country and base it on an equal footing; then you have the May Fourth Movement and Peking University played a leading role," says Ragnar, referring to the historic anti-imperialist movement.

"The Chinese intelligentsia moved toward communism and that can be traced to those years at the time of its foundation."

Development drive

The country's practical developmental approach also helped fuel its achievements, Ragnar says.

"The central theme was modernization. For China and the CPC leadership, if it's not fair and it doesn't serve the country's modernization, then they change or adjust the policies.

"One of the biggest differences between the Western countries and China is that, while we change our governments very frequently, we don't change our economic system－our economies are basically along the same policies," he says.

"China has kept its political leadership but changed its policies, the economic basis, in order to modernize.

"So, there's been the policy of reform and opening-up, and economic innovation. Very rapidly China developed, but there was a lot of pollution. There was a lot of environmental problems. It was about three decades (ago).

"Then around that time, the world woke up to the realities of pollution and the necessity of sustainable, long-term development," Ragnar says.

"And in a remarkably short time, China actually took up this policy, and in this century, about 15 years ago, just about the time when we established our geothermal cooperation, China changes its priorities to rapid sustainable development, from just rapid economic development."

Building on trust

"One hundred years after the establishment of the Communist Party of China, there's a lot of reflection of what are the main components of Chinese Marxism, or socialism, (with) Chinese characteristics," he says.

"I really do think these characteristics, of social fairness, equality and of focusing on modernization, of understanding that modernization has changed, from just being simple modernization or learning from the West into being focused on sustainable development, and innovation, have become a major component.

"There's the idealism: that development and modernization and economic progress is not just for itself or for its own sake. It is for the people.

"The fundamental slogan of the CPC, to 'serve the people', is still the main theme of the Party.

"These all go very long back into Chinese history because the Confucianists said that within a country, it is the people that are most precious. This is linked to the Chinese characteristics, of Chinese socialism. This has been a theme of Chinese socialism from its very establishment," Ragnar says.

"So, the CPC is very focused on the people and on having their trust. And it can only continue to do that through sustainable development, which benefits the lives of the people. That is also why you have poverty alleviation forming the main efforts of the last few years; now it's to continue and revitalize the rural areas and communities. It's because of this focus on the people.

"And it can only be done through sustainable development. Which is why Iceland has a very bright future in continuing to work with China."