Tony Blair and Jet Li have launched the 1,000-Village Solar LED Initiative in Guiyang, China. The five-year project, which is a joint initiative between The Climate Group and the Jet Li One Foundation, will engage 400 villages in China in the first two years, and 600 villages in China, India and African countries on the second stage.

Jet Li, the founder of the Jet Li One Foundation, said: "Environment protection has always been a priority for One Foundation. I'm very excited to see that the LED project has finally landed in villages in China. We will continue to work with The Climate Group to look for low carbon lighting solutions in countryside."

Changhua Wu, greater China director of The Climate Group, said, "This demonstration project will help us identify technical obstacles of LED solar lighting, and then solutions to it. The villages in our list should meet certain criteria, such as, imperative demand for road lighting, applicable natural condition including rich solar energy to guarantee normal operation of the lighting facility."

Tony Blair, founder of the 'Breaking the Climate Deadlock' initiative, said: "We have the green technology solutions to help tackle the threat of climate change. And these technologies bring economic and social opportunities too. What this project will do is demonstrate the effectiveness of these green solutions so that we can generate the scale of change needed. There is a credible, practical, realistic as well as radical way to act. But we need to start making these decisions now which is why I am delighted to be supporting this initiative with Jet Li today."