by Martina Fuchs
GENEVA, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- China has made a great contribution to tackling climate change, Swiss explorer and chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation Bertrand Piccard has said.
"China has already done a lot for the world, and I thank China for that, especially in the production of cheap solar cells," Piccard, also a solar flight pioneer and founder of the foundation, told Xinhua in a virtual interview recently.
"We should put all the climate solutions on the table, all the solutions in every field that can protect the environment in an economically profitable way," he said.
Based in the city of Lausanne in Switzerland, Piccard's Solar Impulse Foundation has received 1,500 clean and profitable solutions from around the world and organized them in a search-engine for climate action, the Solutions Explorer, in a bid to support their implementation at scale.
The solutions include technologies, products, processes or services coming from start-ups and big companies covering the sectors of water, energy, construction, mobility, industry and agriculture, Piccard said.
On Sept. 21, 2020, China announced at the 75th Session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly that it aims to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
Piccard said he would like to welcome more candidates and innovators from China to participate in the program. "I invite all the Chinese innovators to submit their solutions to the Solar Impulse Foundation," he said.
The explorer completed the first nonstop circumnavigation of the globe by balloon in 1999 together with Brian Jones. In 2012, the United Nations Environment Programme designated Piccard as a Champion of the Earth.
In 2016, Piccard and co-pilot Andre Borschberg completed their first ever solar-powered flight around the world with the airplane Solar Impulse. ■
