Good morning!

On behalf of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), please let me congratulate the organizer of today’s event to showcase Fuel Cell Cars and other alternative vehicles, which will be making a difference in building a low carbon society in China.

Today we witness the end of one journey, a journey that started 20 days ago in Shanghai, where a fleet of alternative energy cars drove north towards Beijing. The 3 fuel cell cars, 2 hybrid cars and 2 electric cars that took part in the Touring Across China) visited Nanjing, Qingdao, and Dalian along the approximately 3,000 km long journey to the capital. A distance that is almost equal to traversing Europe from northern Sweden to the south of Italy, something only a few people would attempt.

The truly impressive part is however that this is only part of the planned endeavor since the cars will later travel through southern China and visit Xiamen, Foshan, Kunming and Chengdu, adding another 5,000 km to the rally. Combined with the inter-city travel to showcase the cars, it is expected that the seven cars will cover a distance of approximately 10,000 km.

More importantly, today’s event is only a footstep in a much longer journey in China’s long lasting efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and combating the air pollution affecting all of our major cities.

As you know China is the second biggest oil consumer and carbon emitting country in the world, approximately half of the emissions comes from Coal dependent electricity and heat production which accounts for almost half of the CO2 emissions of the country. Although the transport sector only accounts only 7% of the overall CO2 emissions in China, road transport account for approximately 77% of this annual transport sector emissions, and with the expected increase in the vehicle stock from 150 to 200 million by 2020, new approaches are truly needed.

At the end of July 2014, the number of vehicles in Beijing reached 5.58 million. In addition, another 200,000 cars enter or pass Beijing each day. Vehicle emissions, such as carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides, account for 86 percent, 32% and 56% respectively of the totals of these pollutants in Beijing’s air. Vehicles provide 31% of PM2.5 pollutants in Beijing. In Beijing the total social cost of motorized transport, including air pollution and congestion is estimated to be 7.5 to 15 % of the GDP.

In addition to GHG emission – transport fundamentally impacts sustainable human development, particularly human health as air pollution worsens respiratory health and has a range of other health implications. Improving and using alternative energy technologies like hydrogen fuel cells can help address the serious environment challenges, which we are facing today.

Fuel cell vehicles emit nothing but water vapor and can operate on renewable hydrogen gas. Fuel cell power source can generate more power and has better durability compared to lead-acid batteries. It is also more environmental-friendly without the risks of lead pollution. However, the sales of FCV have been restrained by their high price tag and weak refueling infrastructure.

Since early 2000, GEF has been supporting five countries, namely China, Brazil, Mexico, India and Egypt, to develop and commercialize fuel cell vehicle technologies. UNDP has since 2003 together with the Ministry of Science and Technology of China successfully utilized GEF funding for the design and implementation of the GEF project, Demonstration for Fuel-Cell Bus Commercialization in China. Until now, China is the only country that can have domestic production of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs) with the support of UNDP and the GEF. The fuel cell cars being showcased today are locally made by Shanghai Automobile Industry Corporation and are the physical demonstration of the fuel cell vehicle technologies. By the way, the use of Fuel Cell Buses was also well showcased during the 2008 Olympic Games and the World Expo 2010.

We are fully aware that there are still several barriers to the widespread application and commercialization of FCVs in the country’s transport sector. These include; technical barriers such as the inadequate cost effectiveness and environment adaptability of locally made FCVs; market barriers like local auto companies’ market expectations for FCVs is still very low ; and policy barriers including Lack of FC and FCV testing data for formulating national FCV standards.

However, UNDP, together with MOST, is helping catalyze the cost-reduction of FCVs for public transport applications by supporting significant parallel demonstrations of FCVs and their re-fueling infrastructure in the cities of Beijing, Shanghai, Zhengzhou and Foshan.

While strengthening policy and planning capacity of the line government institutions and public transport companies, the new project will also enhance scientific, technical, and industrial capacities for commercializing FCVs as well as raise the awareness among government, investment, media, and other key actors of how the use of FCVs can positively reduce their climate change footprint.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me share with you UNDP’s commitment to working closely with the Chinese Government in harnessing creative initiatives and innovative ideas for addressing climate change. UNDP stands ready to promote the commercialization of FCVs in the years to come.

Thank you very much for your attention!