Recently, the 16th APEC Energy Ministers' Meeting concluded in Beijing. The conference closely follows the overall theme of "Building an Asia Pacific Community and Promoting Common Prosperity" for the 2026 APEC "Year of China", with the energy sector theme of "Building an Asia Pacific Energy Community that is inclusive, innovative, and collaborative". Ding Xuexiang, member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee and Vice Premier of the State Council, attended the opening ceremony of the meeting and delivered a speech.

The Joint Statement of the 2026 APEC Energy Ministers' Meeting anchors the overall vision of Asia Pacific energy cooperation. The joint statement for the first time combines the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind with the practice of Asia Pacific energy cooperation, systematically interpreting the core connotation of the "Asia Pacific Energy Community", in line with the "APEC Putrajaya Vision 2040", and providing clear direction and guidance for medium - and long-term Asia Pacific energy cooperation.

The three professional consensus achievements form practical guidelines from three dimensions: inclusiveness, innovation, and collaboration. The APEC Vision and Action for Inclusive High Quality Energy defines for the first time the connotation of "safe, reliable, resilient, universally accessible, sustainable, and affordable" high-quality energy, promoting a shift in cooperation focus from basic energy coverage to improving service quality. The APEC Policy Recommendations for Dual Empowerment of Artificial Intelligence and Energy (2026-2030) is a consensus document focusing on "dual empowerment of artificial intelligence and energy" within the APEC cooperation framework. It specifies the establishment of a new "Artificial Intelligence+Energy" special task force under the APEC Energy Working Group. The non binding guidelines for promoting energy security coordination in APEC inherit and carry forward the energy security initiative of the 2001 Shanghai APEC Leaders' Meeting, providing guidance for regional responses to challenges such as energy market volatility, supply chain risks, and extreme weather.

Sharing the achievements of the five independent contributions with China's practice and the sincerity of the host country. In response to the calls of APEC economies and the common technical and practical challenges faced in areas such as energy transition and urban development, China has launched five independent contribution achievements. The State Grid Corporation of China has released a recommended solution to enhance the resilience of the power system, sharing its technical experience in disaster prevention and mitigation, emergency support, and flexible regulation of the power system; The Southern Power Grid Energy Development Research Institute has released a recommended solution for building a new power system that adapts to a high proportion of new energy, summarizing the practical path of source grid load storage coordination and digital intelligence empowerment; Tianjin University's APEC Sustainable Energy Center has released the "Cooperation Framework for Building APEC Zero/Near Zero Carbon Cities", providing a collaborative paradigm for urban energy transformation; The Energy Research Institute of Peking University has released "From Industrial Practice to Regional Collaboration - Practice and Prospects of Asia Pacific Energy Collaborative Governance", proposing paradigms for industrial chain collaboration and policy collaboration based on frontline enterprise cases; The National Energy Group has established the "Asia Pacific Clean Energy Training Academy" to promote the normalization and institutionalization of capacity building.

The 1+3 achievements reflect the breadth of multilateral consensus, and the 5 independently contributed achievements reflect the sincerity of the host's sharing. Behind these plans are China's mature technologies and complete industrial chains in areas such as ultra-high voltage, flexible direct current, offshore wind power, shared energy storage, and smart microgrids. The relevant person in charge of the National Energy Administration stated that in the next decade, China will provide 1000 clean energy training opportunities for APEC economies, work together with all parties to turn consensus into action, blueprint into reality, and jointly build an inclusive, innovative, and collaborative Asia Pacific energy community, injecting lasting momentum into promoting regional prosperity and creating a sustainable and beautiful tomorrow.

This meeting is a ministerial level mechanism event in the energy sector of the APEC China Year. About 300 energy ministers or representatives from APEC member economies and heads of relevant international organizations attended the meeting.Editor/Gong Ziwei