Environmental technology conference eyes carbon reduction
Collaborative management on pollution control and carbon reduction became the theme of this year's IE expo China Environmental Technology Conference, which kicked off in Shanghai on Tuesday.
China's top policy makers, experts, officials and researchers in the environmental field gathered at the conference and shared opinions and solutions on reducing pollution and cutting carbon emission through the use of targeted technology.
Collaboration was called for to reduce pollution and carbon emissions.
A coal storage port in Rizhao, Shandong Province
Collaborative promotion is instrumental in changing traditional high-carbon production and consumption patterns, boosting green economic growth, and reaching a development mode that is better in quality, efficiency, fairness, sustainability and safety, said Li Yonghong, deputy chief of the Foreign Environmental Cooperation Center, Ministry of Ecology and Environment.
Chinese President Xi Jinping announced in September, 2020, that China will meet carbon dioxide emission peak before 2030 and take no more than 30 years, the shortest time in world, to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060.
Xi also stressed last year the importance to take coordinated and efficient reduction of pollution and carbon emissions as an overall solution for promoting comprehensive green transformation in economic and social development.
He Kebin, a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of Tsinghua University, said that collaborative control on pollution and carbon reduction will be the key to achieve goals on climate and air quality improvement in the future.
He put forward four ways to achieve carbon neutrality: cutting carbon emissions through improved resource efficiency, reducing carbon in energy structures, saving carbon by using the geological space, and to sequester carbon via ecological systems.
To achieve the goal of carbon neutrality, the four need to be driven by market mechanisms, He said.
He also pointed out that research and the development of technologies for carbon neutrality will be the main tasks for environmental-protection enterprises over the next 40 years.
Apart from carbon reduction and pollution control, the event also eyed other main concerns, such as reform on the environmental protection industry, scientific breakthroughs, innovation, and policies and market issues.
It also provided opportunities for governments, institutions and corporations in the industry to communicate and learn from each other.
The conference, which will run through April 21, includes a summit forum and over 30 sub-forums, hitting seven hot sectors – water, air, solid waste, noise, monitoring and comprehensive environmental solutions, as well as the development trends and latest information in the industry.
