SPEAKER_00: TED Audio Collective. I'm Elise Hu.You're listening to TED Talks Daily.China needs energy and has yet to break its reliance on coal.Environmental activist Xiaojun Wang grew up in a mining village and has dedicated his life to helping communities combat coal addiction.In his talk from the TED Countdown Summit in 2023, Wang shares ways to move away from coal without leaving those in mining villages behind.After a break. Support for TED Talks Daily comes from Capital One Bank.With no fees or minimums, banking with Capital One is the easiest decision in the history of decisions.Even easier than deciding to listen to another episode of your favorite podcast.
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SPEAKER_01: So in early April this year, I went back to my hometown, Luliang, in central China's Shanxi Province, for the Tomb Sweeping Day.The Tomb Sweeping Day, literally, it is a day when we go and clean the tombs of our deceased beloved ones.It is also a day when we go and ask for blessings from our ancestors. And this year, my sister became a new grandmother, and she wanted to ask for blessings from our father for her new grandson.We had a hard time binding our father's tomb. The roads leading into our village had white cracks with signs telling people to stay away and beware of landslides.Landslides in my usually dry hometown used to be just rare natural disasters.Today, they are manmade, everyday threats because our mountains are being hollowed out by coal mining. And these are the very mountains where my father and my grandfather and our ancestors are buried. My name is Xiaojun Wang.
People who are familiar with Chinese language, culture or history will immediately know I was born in the 1970s because of the character Jun in my name.Jun means soldier, and that, back then, was the best job in China, and that was what my veteran grandfather had expected me to do, to grow up and become a soldier just like him. I grew up, became a teacher, a journalist and then an environmental activist.My work today focuses mostly on helping my village my province and China to move out of coal addiction, regain our confidence and build a new, clean living without coal, because I have witnessed how my village, my province have been destroyed by coal mining and coal burning.My province, over 40 percent, sits on top of coal and coal mining. At its peak in the mid-1990s, we had about 11,000 coal mines all over the province.And even today, right now, more than one million people work at various coal mines. and that means one of every 30 people.One of them was my cousin, who also had the name or the character Jun in his name, so he shared the same expectations from our grandfather.
He grew up, became a coal miner, Ten years ago, he was injured in a coal mine accident.He got addicted to painkillers, his liver was damaged, and three years ago, he died.He was younger than me, and now, today, he's buried in the same mountains as our grandfather. Even buried, he is still not free from coal mine-related accidents.We have been told to remove or to relocate our family graveyard.By the end of this year, we need to find new places for our deceased beloved ones.My cousin, our fathers, our grandfather, our grandparents, our ancestors. And that is the reality my province has been stuck in.We are proudly, ironically speaking, the eldest co-brother for China.
We produce over one billion tons of coal every year.So one billion tons of coal is dug out every year from underneath our mountains, and most of that is sent to other provinces and cities to support their economies. This highly centralized coordination mechanism in China is called the sibling mechanism.We support 24 provinces and cities in China.They rely on our coal for their heating, their electricity, their industries, almost everything.And we are very proud to be that.In mid-2021, an energy crisis hit China. So the parents in Beijing asked Shanxi to keep digging and to dig harder and faster.And we, the eldest cold brother, Shanxi, responded with earnest and pride.Then in early October, a very rare heavy rainstorm hit our usually dry province.
Almost 100 towns got flooded.More landslides happened.Over 120,000 people had to evacuate, leaving behind their houses, their crops, their livestock, to soak, to rot, to die and to collapse in floodwater.At the same time, our governor held a press conference. not to ask Beijing for rescue or for help, but to promise that we would keep digging and to ensure the rest of the other 24 siblings cold supply for the rest of the year. Then, one month later, in November, at COP26 in Glasgow, the whole world, China included, promised and committed to a coal face-down.China had also made its domestic commitment to reach carbon emission peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. The most effective ways to reach these goals or these targets is to reduce the burning of coal.So clearly, the direction for coal has been very firmly set.Coal has no future.
Many of the 24 provinces and cities who have been relying heavily on Shaanxi coal, our coal, are taking actions to move away from coal into a cleaner, stronger economy that is mainly supported by renewable energy.But ... Our province has been told to keep digging and to dig harder and faster, because the parents in Beijing are still very concerned about another energy crisis.That is our reality.That is the reality the eldest co-brother, Shen Xi, has been stuck in. Burning less coal is good news for the world.Burning less coal is even good news for Shanxi.Because the sooner all the other siblings start to reduce their reliance on coal, the sooner can we start to climb out of coal mine shafts and to look around, above the ground, for other options and other solutions, in the sunlight, in the open, clean air. Above the ground, we have the highest cluster of ancient buildings in China.Over 75 percent of buildings that are older than a thousand years exist in my province.
The Forbidden City in Beijing is only 600 years old.And even underneath, the ground.Our real treasure is not coal.We have ancient tombs that are easily 500 years older than the better-known terracotta warriors.That is our real treasure.That is our real pride.Not many people outside Shaanxi know about it, though.In fact, not many people outside Shaanxi know much about Shaanxi other than coal. We are the birthplace of China's agriculture and culture.
We are the birthplace of noodles and bread and wine.We are the birthplace of Chinese language, poetry and even the earliest banking system in China.People outside Shanxi associate us with coal because that's what we have been given. So fortunately, Shanxi Province, our government, has been slowly waking up and are taking actions to move away.So things are changing, things are happening.But Shanxi alone cannot do it.We alone will not be able to break away from the vicious circle of co-reliance or co-addiction. Beijing and other sibling provinces need to step up with their share and pay back. Just like how our coal has been mobilized to support all these provinces' economy and growth, this mechanism, this sibling coordination mechanism in China, needs to start today and bring clean resources back to us and towards us and help us.In the past 45 years, this mechanism has
helped, has worked very, very effectively to bring all the technology and investments from the richer coastal provinces in the East to the poorer inland provinces in China.It also very successfully helped China to end extreme poverty for its 1.4 billion people back in 2021. In the coming decades and years, before 2030, before 2060, this same sibling mechanism will be crucial for China as a whole, as a big family, to achieve its dual carbon targets, which is carbon emission peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. As I said, as a whole, as a big family.That means Shanxi, my province, cannot be left behind, stuck in coal mine shafts, stuck in coal smog and stuck in collapsed mountains. Only with this policy coordination led by Beijing and also financial and technical support from other sibling provinces can we start to climb out of the coal mine shaft and rebuild our new economy. by reviving our ancient history for a more guaranteed future.We have all these ancient buildings, we have all this culture that are waiting to be woken up to actually present and to share with the rest of the world. This is how we can start to have a fair, clean transition above the ground without leaving our people behind, jobless, hopeless, helpless and futureless.Because each gram of coal that we dig will send all these ancient temples and ancient tombs closer to collapsing.
Each gram of coal that we burn will send more acid rain to the farmlands and more coal dust to the fragile wooden temples.We pray for hope when we go to these temples.We pray for hope, we pray for blessings from our ancestors. because we deserve a better future, a clean, a safe, a healthy future for my sister's new grandson. And at the same time, our deceased beloved ones, my cousin, our father, our grandparents, our ancestors also deserve a safe future.They deserve to rest in real peace without having the fear to be relocated in their graveyard.So that's my story.Thank you so very much.
SPEAKER_00: PRX.
