How should the first batch of carbon peak pilot parks explore the "carbon" road?
A few days ago, China clearly selected 100 typical representative cities and parks to carry out the pilot construction of carbon peaking.
Chen Lujun, a professor at Tsinghua University's School of Environment, and his team participated in the research on the park's carbon peaking project in the early stage. Recently, he said in an interview with a reporter from China Environment News that the first batch of 35 pilots identified by 15 provinces and regions cover both cities and parks.
"In principle, the main body of pilot city construction is prefecture-level and above, and the main body of pilot park construction is provincial-level and above parks. Chen Lujun said.
"Difficulties in carbon peaking"
Cities are the main carriers of population and economic activities, as well as the main sources of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in China.
Li Zhong, deputy director of the Energy Research Institute of the China Academy of Macroeconomics, told reporters that in 2022, the urbanization rate of China's permanent population will exceed 65%, and the urban population will reach 921 million.
While the park has become an important engine for the high-quality development of the urban economy, it has also carried a large number of high-energy-consuming and high-emission industries in relatively concentrated areas, resulting in a considerable amount of carbon dioxide emissions.
At present, there are more than 2,500 national and provincial parks in the country, most of which are located in the Bohai Rim, Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, and Hebei Province, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province, Anhui Province and Guangdong Province are among the first 15 provinces and regions.
"According to our team's research, China's national and provincial parks contribute more than 50% of industrial output and 31% of the country's carbon dioxide emissions. Chen Lujun said.
In Chen Lujun's view, cities are the main body responsible for China's carbon peak work, and parks are the focus and difficulty of carbon peak work. The study of the carbon peak pathway of the park is a key part of the research on the carbon peak pathway of the city.
Li Zhong agrees, "Accelerating the green and low-carbon transformation and development of cities and parks is the basic condition for ensuring that the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality is achieved as scheduled." ”
In October 2021, the State Council issued the Action Plan for Carbon Peaking Before 2030, which proposes to increase support for local governments to promote carbon peaking.
Although all provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) have formulated implementation plans for carbon peaking in their regions, there is still a lot of work that needs to be further refined and explored at the park level.
Chen Lujun said that there are a large number of parks in China, with both individuality and commonality, and different categories can be divided from geographical distribution, industrial structure, and development foundation.
According to the "National Carbon Peak Pilot Construction Plan", the first batch of 35 pilots in 15 provinces and autonomous regions shall be proposed by the relevant provincial and regional development and Reform Commissions, and shall be submitted to the National Development and Reform Commission for confirmation after being approved by the people's governments of the respective regions.
"The pilot park is allocated according to the province and region, which to a certain extent ensures the typical representation of the pilot park in the region. Chen Lujun said.
At present, the growth of carbon emissions in some parks has slowed down or has peaked in stages, while some are still in the climbing stage. In the previous report, Chen's research team developed a set of selection methods for the selection of pilot parks.
Chen Lujun introduced that the selection of the pilot park will focus on considering its typical representativeness from the regional characteristics, resource endowment, development foundation and industrial structure, so as to ensure that the pilot park can represent different types of parks and achieve the coverage of most parks, so as to achieve better pilot purposes and effects.
"The pilot encourages different cities and parks to actively explore the path and form of carbon peaking in combination with their own characteristics, and promotes the coordination and progress of the overall layout of the national carbon peaking work. Chen Lujun said.
"Shouldering the important task of demonstration and leadership"
In December 2021, the Central Economic Work Conference pointed out that "we should create conditions to achieve the 'dual control' of energy consumption to the 'dual control' of total carbon emissions and intensity as soon as possible".
In specific practice, most of the burden is on the park, and they have innovatively built low-carbon parks and zero-carbon parks.
However, compared with low-carbon parks and zero-carbon parks, the pilot parks have put forward new requirements for accelerating the improvement of clean energy utilization efficiency, promoting the high-quality development of park industries, improving the green and low-carbon level of infrastructure, vigorously promoting resource recycling, and improving the synergistic ability of pollution reduction and carbon reduction.
"We can't talk about carbon on carbon, but take high-quality development as the primary task, effectively play a leading role in carbon peaking, and work together to promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction and green growth. Li Zhong said.
The paths and models for achieving peak carbon emissions vary widely. Chen Lujun believes that the pilot park should focus on exploring new paths for synergy in pollution reduction and carbon reduction.
"It is necessary to sort out the current situation of pollutant emissions and carbon emissions, and do a good job in the analysis of the homology of major pollutants and greenhouse gas emissions. Chen Lujun told reporters that in the case of finding out the "family background", we can formulate a path of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in line with our own development characteristics, strengthen technological innovation, policy innovation and management means innovation, carry out pilot projects for pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and accelerate the transformation from end treatment to the whole process and life cycle of pollution reduction and carbon reduction synergy.
In accordance with the requirements of the "National Carbon Peak Pilot Construction Plan", the pilot park should accelerate the establishment of a carbon emission control-oriented management mechanism, and strive to improve the level of green, low-carbon and circular development of the park.
"The pilot park is responsible for the demonstration and leadership of the carbon peak and carbon neutrality work of the national industrial parks, and needs to form a number of operable, replicable and promotable innovative measures and reform experiences for parks with different resource endowments, different development bases and different industrial structures. Chen Lujun said.
For the existing park, Chen Lujun believes that the transformation should be considered from the green and low-carbon upgrading of the industrial structure, the creation of an ecological industrial chain, the adjustment of energy structure and the improvement of energy efficiency, the green upgrading and transformation of infrastructure, and the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, etc., and can also be combined with green logistics, green buildings, green and low-carbon technology research and development, promotion and application.
For the new parks, he suggested that the top-level design of green development should be emphasized, the foundation for green and low-carbon development should be laid, the green industrial chain should be optimized, the symbiotic link between infrastructure should be emphasized, the logistics/energy flow transmission system of the park should be scientifically designed, and the industrial symbiosis system should be constructed.
Of course, all pilot parks are inseparable from scientific and technological innovation, and green and low-carbon technologies and green and low-carbon industries are bound to flourish.
At present, no matter how many pilot parks are produced in the first batch, they will look at the overall situation in terms of geographical distribution, industrial layout, energy structure and distribution, and take into account balanced development.
The National Development and Reform Commission also said that it will organize and carry out follow-up pilot construction according to the progress of the first batch of pilots.
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