'Carbon credits' to reward residents' green lifestyles
Between 2016 and 2020, Shanghai built 20 important wildlife habitats, restored or built nearly 420 hectares of wetlands and wildlife habitats, and created six wildlife sanctuaries.
Shanghai residents will receive “carbon credits” by living eco-friendly and low-carbon lifestyles as part of China's push to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
Low-carbon activities, such as green transportation, simple packaging, garbage sorting and "empty plate" campaign, will be converted into the credits in personal accounts based on the carbon emissions that have been avoided.
The carbon credits can be used at the city’s carbon trade market and commercial platforms, said Cheng Peng of the Shanghai Ecology and Environment Bureau.
“Residents' participation is key to achieving the goal of carbon neutrality,” Cheng said in a radio interview today.
China has pledged to reduce domestic carbon-dioxide emissions in an international effort to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — part of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.
The country is striving to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
Shanghai aims to peak carbon-dioxide emissions by 2025, five years earlier than the national target.
China is striving to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.
To achieve the goal, the city will create a highly efficient and clean-energy system. Energy from fossil fuels will be controlled and gradually replaced by renewable forms of energy, and a new electric power system based on green energy will be developed.
Efforts will be made to strictly control industrial pollution, with green manufacturing, construction and transportation promoted.
New technologies will reduce pollution and carbon emissions, while preferential policies on finance, taxation, pricing and land will be optimized.
More wetlands and forests will be created to help reduce carbon emissions.
Shanghai has launched the eighth round of a three-year plan to improve the environment between 2021 and 2023. More than 200 key projects have been planned for water, air, soil, solid waste, agriculture and ecology.
“The quality of Shanghai’s environment will be stabilized and improved along with the scale, quality and function of its ecological space. Ecological risks will be controlled, while green production and lifestyles will be created,” according to the general target of the action plan.
New technologies will reduce pollution and carbon emissions, while preferential policies on finance, taxation, pricing and land will be optimized.
The city's average concentration of PM2.5 will be stabilized to 35 micrograms per cubic meter by 2023, and its air-quality index will be "good" or "excellent" more than 85 percent of the time.
The forest coverage rate will reach 18.9 percent, while per-capita park and greenlands will reach 9.1 square meters.
The PM2.5 reading is a gauge monitoring airborne particles of 2.5 microns or less in diameter, which can penetrate deep inside people's lungs.
The city's PM2.5 density was 32 micrograms per cubic meter in 2020, 36 percent lower than that in 2015 and down from 35 micrograms per cubic meter in 2019.
The city has made a major push to increase recycling.
The city government also aims to improve the quality of water environment and tap-water sources.
The quality of the city’s four major drinking-water sources, the Qingcaosha, Chenhang, Dongfengxisha and Jinze reservoirs, has been stabilized in the level-III in a five-tier system since 2018, equal to the quality of fish conservation zones and swimming pools.
Shanghai has strictly controlled overall coal consumption and helped promote the purchase of 364,000 new-energy vehicles in the past five years. The proportion of coal in primary energy consumption dropped from 37 percent to about 31 percent.
Between 2016 and 2020, Shanghai, with a population of more than 24 million, built 20 important wildlife habitats, restored or built nearly 420 hectares of wetlands and wildlife habitats, and created six wildlife sanctuaries.
The quality of the city’s four major drinking-water sources is equal to the quality of fish conservation zones and swimming pools.
