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UN to report on Expo's green legacy
Source: Xinhua |
July 5, 2010, Monday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
THE United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is to issue a report assessing the carbon footprint of the Shanghai World Expo at the end of the event, a senior UN official said yesterday.
The report will review the goals set by Expo organizers and study how a low carbon footprint, as well as the Expo's environmental responsibility and efficiency, can be achieved, said UN Under Secretary General Achim Steiner, who is also executive director of the UNEP.
Citing the use of electric buses and hydrogen-powered vehicles, Steiner said many experiments and innovations using green energy and technology had been carried out at the World Expo site.
"We want to look at the end of the Expo to see how well they did this work and also to calculate whether it achieved lower carbon emissions," he said in Shanghai.
Steiner said the report would also look at how well the Expo managed to involve China's citizens and non-governmental organizations with their ideas about the future.
"We hope that the countries which brought the latest technology and ideas about the future here will help to inspire China's development and the lessons from here can travel to all corners of the world," he added.
"Today what we are doing is trying to look at the solutions," said Steiner, adding the Expo is demonstrating that many technology options are available to produce the same amount of electricity and transportation without using so many resources.
"We will assess what will be the legacy of the Expo for Shanghai, China and the world," he said.
An Expo forum in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, heard yesterday that in China's 4 trillion yuan (US$588 billion) economic stimulus plan, launched after the global financial crisis, funds for energy saving, carbon reduction and ecological construction reached 210 billion yuan.
The 370 billion yuan in funds used for innovation, restructuring and coping with climate change, "green investment," accounted for 14.5 percent of the stimulus plan.
Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian told the forum: "China took only 30 years to have the environmental problems that had gradually emerged in developed countries over 200 to 300 years. As a big developing country with a population of 1.3 billion people, China is under unprecedented pressure for both economic development and environmental protection."
He added: "The old path of economic growth based on environmental pollution implemented in developed countries over the past 300 years is not feasible in China."
The Expo well illustrates China's efforts to save energy and curb carbon dioxide emission. More than 80 percent of the pavilions have adopted environmental friendly designs, while more than half the pavilions use clean and renewable energy.
However, Wang Ke, a team member of the energy and ecological economy project under the People's University in Beijing, said the shift to a low-carbon economy will only be met at a huge cost to society.
More than 400,000 people were laid off as a result of the shutdown of small coal-fired power plants from 2006 to 2009 and many studies indicate that curbing greenhouse gas emissions may delay China's development, affect people's incomes, lead to unemployment and further increase the burden on vulnerable groups in the short term, Wang said.
The report will review the goals set by Expo organizers and study how a low carbon footprint, as well as the Expo's environmental responsibility and efficiency, can be achieved, said UN Under Secretary General Achim Steiner, who is also executive director of the UNEP.
Citing the use of electric buses and hydrogen-powered vehicles, Steiner said many experiments and innovations using green energy and technology had been carried out at the World Expo site.
"We want to look at the end of the Expo to see how well they did this work and also to calculate whether it achieved lower carbon emissions," he said in Shanghai.
Steiner said the report would also look at how well the Expo managed to involve China's citizens and non-governmental organizations with their ideas about the future.
"We hope that the countries which brought the latest technology and ideas about the future here will help to inspire China's development and the lessons from here can travel to all corners of the world," he added.
"Today what we are doing is trying to look at the solutions," said Steiner, adding the Expo is demonstrating that many technology options are available to produce the same amount of electricity and transportation without using so many resources.
"We will assess what will be the legacy of the Expo for Shanghai, China and the world," he said.
An Expo forum in Nanjing, capital of east China's Jiangsu Province, heard yesterday that in China's 4 trillion yuan (US$588 billion) economic stimulus plan, launched after the global financial crisis, funds for energy saving, carbon reduction and ecological construction reached 210 billion yuan.
The 370 billion yuan in funds used for innovation, restructuring and coping with climate change, "green investment," accounted for 14.5 percent of the stimulus plan.
Minister of Environmental Protection Zhou Shengxian told the forum: "China took only 30 years to have the environmental problems that had gradually emerged in developed countries over 200 to 300 years. As a big developing country with a population of 1.3 billion people, China is under unprecedented pressure for both economic development and environmental protection."
He added: "The old path of economic growth based on environmental pollution implemented in developed countries over the past 300 years is not feasible in China."
The Expo well illustrates China's efforts to save energy and curb carbon dioxide emission. More than 80 percent of the pavilions have adopted environmental friendly designs, while more than half the pavilions use clean and renewable energy.
However, Wang Ke, a team member of the energy and ecological economy project under the People's University in Beijing, said the shift to a low-carbon economy will only be met at a huge cost to society.
More than 400,000 people were laid off as a result of the shutdown of small coal-fired power plants from 2006 to 2009 and many studies indicate that curbing greenhouse gas emissions may delay China's development, affect people's incomes, lead to unemployment and further increase the burden on vulnerable groups in the short term, Wang said.
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