BEIJING: As cities across the world race to adapt to climate change, C40 — an international organization of cities that are collaborating on actions to confront the crisis — has said that Chinese cities are leading in contributing to coping with climate change.
“Chinese cities are leading on climate mitigation and adaptation in a variety of ways,” said Mark Watts, the organization’s executive director, who cited the major progress of many cities in China on the electrification of vehicles.
“In Shenzhen, for example, buses and taxis have all been replaced with electric vehicles, and the city has at least 62,000 electric distribution vehicles,” he said.
Watts said China has also carried out large-scale, rapid efforts to improve the energy efficiency of buildings.
He said that Qingdao, Shandong province, had renovated 38 million square meters of buildings by the end of last year, benefiting approximately 475,000 households and achieving an annual carbon reduction of about 515,000 metric tons.
“With more than half of the world’s construction now taking place in China, the construction sector is an area where Chinese cities can truly lead on emissions reductions,” Watts said.
–The Daily Mail-China Daily news exchange item
