Born to "green" and "rich", Ningbo experience appeared at COP28
On November 30, the 28th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP28) opened in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. At 11 p.m. on December 3 (7 p.m. local time on December 3), at the side meeting on the theme of "Synergy of Pollution Reduction and Carbon Reduction: Achieving a Win-Win Situation for Environment, Climate and Economic Benefits", Ningbo, Zhejiang Province shared the relevant practices of mining marine blue carbon resources to promote ecological co-prosperity.
With a total sea area of more than 8,000 square kilometers and a coastline of 1,678 kilometers, the cargo throughput of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port has ranked first in the world for 14 consecutive years. Ningbo, which was born to the sea and thrives because of the sea, tells the beautiful story of the ocean and the city, which is not only natural and appropriate, but also has the right to speak.
Ningbo has a rich marine resource "family base". Not only is the coastline long, but the blue carbon ecosystem has strong carbon storage capacity and great potential for increasing sinks, and the carbon sink potential of coastal flats, salt marshes and fisheries is very considerable. According to preliminary estimates, the existing carbon sink reserves in the Ningbo sea area are 3.74 million tons, with an annual increase of 113,600 tons.
How can we make gold shine while guarding this blue "gold mine"? You Wuwei, deputy secretary general of the Ningbo Municipal People's Government, is the narrator of this "Ningbo story." From the top-level design, Ningbo has planned a support system for blue carbon policies. In the past year, the creation of innovative cities for pollution reduction and carbon reduction has been officially launched, and the "Ningbo Plan" for blue carbon has been compiled in combination with the action plan for the construction of global marine center cities, which clearly focuses on the basic research of marine carbon sinks, marine ecological protection and restoration, the integration of marine carbon sinks and industries, and the pilot demonstration of marine carbon sinks, so as to improve the carbon sequestration and sink capacity of marine ecosystems.
In order to build a blue carbon resource protection system, Ningbo's governance focuses on a "precision card": the city's special actions such as the remediation of black and odorous water bodies, the protection and restoration of water ecology, clean discharge, the construction of "zero direct sewage discharge zone", and the remediation of sea outlets;
Today, Ningbo's "Marine Ranch" has become a real "green bank". The country's first blue carbon auction, the country's first blue carbon moss insurance project, and the province's first blue carbon pledge financing will all set sail from Ningbo in 2023.
"Ningbo looks forward to communicating and exchanging more with all parties to jointly combat climate change through broader national and global cooperation. You Wuwei said that Ningbo will aim to be "world-class and domestically leading", and strive to make new breakthroughs in marine ecological restoration, monitoring system construction, integrated development, basic research, and carbon sink value realization, so as to build Ningbo into a marine center city with "blue and green interweaving, clear rivers and seas, and distinctive characteristics", and contribute to the realization of carbon neutrality.
Beilun has a developed port industry, with many high-carbon industries such as petrochemicals, steel, and energy, with an oil refining scale of 8 million tons/year, thermal power generating units exceeding 5,000 megawatts, total energy consumption exceeding 10 million tons of standard coal, and carbon dioxide emissions exceeding 40 million tons. Why did such a city of "big ports, big industries, and big logistics" with many bridge cranes, factories and trucks rushing go to the global conference and tell the story of "blue sky and white clouds" to the world?
Beilun is one of the areas with the earliest opening time, the highest degree of openness and the highest concentration of national-level functional zones in China, and is also the host of the Ningbo Area of the Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone and the location of the core port area of Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, the "world's largest port".
To develop, we must also develop green. At the same time of high-quality economic development, Beilun has always adhered to the concept of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", persevered in promoting the integration of ecological civilization construction into all aspects and the whole process of economic, political, cultural and social construction, and embarked on a green development path of "integrated development of Hong Kong, industry, city and culture, and two-way gain of ecological economy", drawing a new picture of Beilun with beauty and prosperity. Beilun has successfully established a national ecological civilization construction demonstration zone and a national practice and innovation base of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets", and has been awarded the "Beautiful Zhejiang" assessment for six consecutive years and the "Dayu Ding" Golden Tripod for two consecutive years. In the process of achieving the parallel of "rich" and "green", the most critical starting point for Beilun is the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, which is also the theme of Beilun's experience sharing in COP28.
Over the years, under the guidance of the "dual carbon" goal, Beilun has actively carried out national and provincial collaborative innovation pilots for pollution reduction and carbon reduction, planned to promote key tasks such as industrial recycling symbiosis, clean energy utilization, and benchmark project construction, and carried out a series of explorations.
Beilun continues to improve the integrated development of the entire upstream and downstream industrial chain, preliminarily establishes an industrial symbiotic coupling and circular development model of "resources-products-waste-renewable resources", completes 22 recycling transformation projects such as iron and steel waste residue utilization, further opens up the in-depth utilization of resources and energy between steel, chemical, papermaking and other industries, and creates a number of green industrial parks. For example, Wanhua Chemical (Ningbo), is the world's largest enterprise in the production capacity of a single set of MDI (a chemical raw material) production unit, and has introduced "1+9" upstream and downstream supporting enterprises, MDI production scale expanded from 160,000 tons to 1.8 million tons, the total output value of the park increased from 2.5 billion yuan to 34.3 billion yuan, and MDI's pollutant emissions and carbon dioxide emissions per unit product decreased by 30% and 20% respectively, achieving a win-win situation of economic and environmental benefits.
Wanhua Chemical (Ningbo) Co., Ltd.
Through the co-construction and sharing of pollution reduction and carbon reduction infrastructure, Beilun has realized the comprehensive utilization of water, solid waste and other resources, and the regional reclaimed water supply has reached 25 million tons/year, the centralized gas supply will reach 1.2 billion cubic meters/year, and the centralized disposal scale of hazardous waste such as waste activated carbon regeneration will reach 300,000 tons/year. At the Yandong Water Reclamation Plant, the tail water from sewage treatment is then advanced to become the city's "second water source". This reclaimed water has been widely used in more than 20 enterprises such as Ningshan Iron and Steel, Formosa Plastics, power plants, ore terminals, etc., with an annual external supply of about 25 million cubic meters, achieving an annual reduction of 500 tons of COD and 7.5 tons of ammonia nitrogen. At the same time, Beilun has accelerated the construction of low-carbon and energy-saving infrastructure in the port, achieved full coverage of high and low voltage shore power in the Beilun port area of Ningbo Zhoushan Port, and built the first low-carbon terminal demonstration project in Zhejiang Province in the Meishan port area. Up to now, Beilun has created 3 four-star green ports.
Sedimentation tank of Yandong Sewage Treatment Plant.
Small and micro parks are the main carriers of Beilun's block economic development and industrial cluster upgrading, and they are also an important battlefield for pollution reduction and carbon reduction. Beilun is the first in the province to explore and implement the integrated reform of environmental protection "Green Island", widely carry out the construction of "Green Island" parks in small and micro parks, promote the centralized disposal of wastewater, waste gas and solid waste and environmental protection work of enterprises in the park, and serve the green and low-carbon development of small and medium-sized enterprises. Up to now, the "Green Island" model has benefited 980 enterprises in the region, helping them reduce costs and increase efficiency, and has been promoted by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. At the same time, at the social level, Beilun vigorously promotes green and low-carbon production and lifestyle, actively builds the application scenario of "Green Port City", has built more than 200 "low-carbon cells" such as green factories, and has opened 16 environmental protection facilities in key industries such as thermal power, iron and steel, and petrochemicals to the public.
In Beilun in autumn and winter, the wind is light and the clouds are clear, the sky is clear, whether in the city or the countryside, you can shoot the blue sky and clear water. The charm of the port city of Beilun lies in the coolness of both the industrial city and the beauty of the water town in the south of the Yangtze River. Beilun will not stop exploring and reforming, and will continue to focus on the innovation of technology, management and system, accelerate the construction of a collaborative system for pollution reduction and carbon reduction, establish a diversified incentive policy mechanism, and build a number of benchmark enterprises and benchmark projects for pollution reduction and carbon reduction in key industries such as petrochemical and iron and steel, so as to provide Beilun experience that can be replicated and referenced for the same type of region.
