Photovoltaic panels are widely installed on the roofs of local buildings in Huzhou city, Zhejiang province. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By CHEN Chunyou

On December 8, 2022, Huzhou city, in east China's Zhejiang province, was honored as the international cooperation demonstration zone of ecological civilization in recognition of its contribution to environmental protection, at a forum of the COP15 held in Montreal.

Huzhou is where the ecological civilization vision of "lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets," was proposed in 2005.

Over the decades, Huzhou has been adhering to the green development path mapped out by the vision. The city puts environmental protection front and center when planning its development. In order to strengthen public ecological awareness, August 15 every year was designated as Huzhou's ecological civilization day in 2015.

In 2019, Huzhou launched 10 special actions to promote a green lifestyle across society, including advancing green and smart manufacturing, low-carbon transportation and zero-carbon buildings, and encouraging the public to save energy wherever possible.

In 2021, Huzhou introduced the carbon efficiency code system, which can evaluate enterprises from three dimensions, including carbon emission intensity, industrial utilization efficiency and energy consumption structure. Enterprises input this data into this system and get relevant results, which guide them to carry out further low-carbon transformation.

According to statistics from the Huzhou Economy and Information Bureau, about 3,800 industrial enterprises are using this system. This new model allows enterprises to become more engaged in energy conservation and emission reduction, instead of being instructed by authorities to make adjustments.

Another application called South Taihu was introduced in August 2022. People can earn credits if they take part in low-carbon activities. Those credit points could be used for bus rides or as coupons for shopping.

In addition, to promote the transformation of production modes, Huzhou has pushed ahead with the elimination of outdated production capacity, and carried out a campaign to promote green development in more than 10 sectors, including textile, dyeing and printing, and battery.

As a result, more than 1,520 enterprises have been upgraded. The number of lead battery enterprises reduced from 225 to 16, while the output value increased by 14-fold. Subsequently, two globally leading green energy suppliers, Tianneng Battery Group and Chilwee Group, became popular.

Since the advent of online shopping, express delivery is an emerging sector with the potential to cause much pollution. In response, Huzhou promotes the recycling of delivery packaging, and plans to gradually ban the use of non-degradable plastic bags in disposal centers and terminal outlets, said an official at the market supervision department of Huzhou Municipal Postal Administration.

Huzhou is advancing the building of a low-carbon city in every respect. In 2022, notable progress has been achieved. Buses in service are all electric. A total of 16 million square meters of buildings were constructed in accordance with green building standards, and 42 piloted future community projects with better energy-efficient performance are being built.