The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area's advantages in terms of innovation and advanced manufacturing present great potential during the world's green transition. Once that potential is unleashed, the city cluster could play an exemplary role in global low-carbon development, experts said.

They made the remarks at a seminar entitled "Low-Carbon Sustainable Development", held virtually on the sidelines of the GBA Development Forum (Guangzhou) & Vision China event on Wednesday.

Referring to the area as highly internationalized with advantages in innovation and advanced manufacturing, Adhi Kawidastra, consul of economic affairs for Indonesia in Guangzhou, highlighted the significant progress the Bay Area has made in the development of electric vehicles.

"In China, the GBA has been a dominant EV market," he said.

Statistics show that Guangdong is China's largest producer and consumer market for EVs, he added.

There are more than a quarter of a million EVs alone registered on provincial roads, about one-eighth of the national total, let alone in other parts of the area.

The success of the EV industry, a viable eco-friendly solution contributing to national economic development, is proof that growth can be achieved without hindering wealth or employment, he said.

Fu Zhengping, associate dean of the Institute of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Development Studies at Sun Yat-sen University, described a very promising situation for low-carbon transition in the Bay Area.

"There has been marked progress in the green transition of Guangdong's mode of economic development," he said.

In 2020, the advanced manufacturing sector made up 56 percent of value added for large-scale industrial enterprises, he said.

The share of non-fossil energy in the province's primary energy consumption was 29 percent, up 4.4 percent from 2015.

Noting space for future cooperation on green development, Fu called for joint efforts from Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao to improve policy coordination and technology and personnel exchanges to promote the development of an ecological civilization in the area.

Liang Mingyi, director of the Urban Ecological and Environmental Research Center at the South China Institute of Environmental Science, also called on the three to establish a fund that could help address differences in their fiscal systems.

The discrepancies might hinder cross-regional environmental projects, he said.

Liu Jichen, founder and CEO of Clear Plate, an app that rewards people for reducing food waste, also called for the establishment of a working mechanism to facilitate cooperation on turning the Bay Area into a green financial center.