Scientific and technological innovation promotes green development, and Beijing creates a world-renowned model

In the golden autumn of Beijing, the sky is blue, the water is clear, and the climate is pleasant. From September 14 to 15, the "2024 Beijing International Metropolitan Clean Air and Climate Action Forum" was held at the Beijing International Convention Center. This international event with the theme of "Technological Innovation Leading Clean Air and Climate Action" focused global attention.

Experts and scholars from more than 40 countries and regions and representatives of more than 10 ecological and environmental companies participated to share advanced concepts and practical cases of air pollution control and climate change response in international metropolises, and jointly seek a new chapter in green development.

Tu Ruihe, representative of the United Nations Environment Program in China who has attended the forum for six consecutive years and shared views, said: "The United Nations Environment Program has supported and followed up the improvement of Beijing's air quality for a long time. The survey believes that there is no precedent for improving air quality in a metropolis like Beijing City at a global level, and its good practices are worth learning from other countries and cities."

Adhering to the core concept of "a community with a shared future for mankind", at this forum, Beijing will share with the world the in-depth practices it has done in cutting-edge research, advanced technologies, realization paths and demonstration actions on air pollution control and climate change response, providing a vivid example for the world.

Technology empowers innovation to lead pollution reduction and carbon reduction

Eric Solheim, former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations and Vice Chairman of the International Alliance for Green Development of the Belt and Road Initiative, fully affirmed Beijing's continuous improvement of the ecological environment in his speech at the forum. He said: Beijing has experienced remarkable rapid development in the past 30 years and has made remarkable achievements in the three major fields of energy utilization, transportation and natural environment protection.

The remarkable achievements Solheim has seen are made by many efforts, but innovation-led pollution reduction and carbon reduction is undoubtedly one of the most important driving forces for Beijing's green development.

"The white equipment on the far left side of the booth is a model of the more than 1000 atmospheric gridded monitoring equipment we built in Beijing. The completion of the gridded monitoring system has achieved full coverage of more than 300 streets and towns in the city, making it the first in the country. A professional network that is refined to the street and township level."

"Hundreds of millions of pieces of data are gathered into our big data base every day, intelligent identification is carried out through intelligent mining, and intelligent decision-making systems are used to coordinate scheduling to support our intelligent governance."

Shen Xiu 'e, director of the Beijing City Ecological Environment Monitoring Center, introduced in detail the "atmospheric three supervisors linkage" system innovatively constructed by Beijing City. This system uses intelligent sensing technology to accurately trace the origin, achieve intelligent decision-making, and provide more precise and effective measures and technical routes for pollution control. Since its operation, the system has successfully captured tens of thousands of clues to problems through off-site means, providing strong support for the transformation of Beijing's atmospheric environment supervision from an extensive management model to a refined management model.

"We have introduced the city's largest span area and the first integrated air film technology applied to the full construction cycle, effectively reducing dust pollution during the construction process." Yao Weilong, deputy director of the Beijing Sub-Center Management Committee, shared the cutting-edge concepts and practical results of the city's sub-center in optimizing the spatial pattern, managing disease problems in large cities, and promoting the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei.

Beijing Drainage Group demonstrated their low-carbon technology practices. "Using biogas cogeneration technology not only replaces external electricity demand, but also produces 80 million cubic meters of biogas every year and converts it into 80 million kilowatt-hours of electricity. This process reduces carbon emissions by about 20%."

"Beijing City has built a high-quality supercharging network. The first batch of supercharging stations with a maximum output power of 600 kilowatts per gun and an average daily service capacity of 700 vehicles have been put into operation in Beijing recently. A total of 11 supercharging stations are planned to be built during the year." Chen Binfa, deputy chief engineer and director of the development planning department of State Grid's Beijing City Electric Power Company, brought the latest progress report on power grid companies 'efforts to reduce pollution and carbon emissions in the capital.

Green development gathers bit by bit, and behind the transformation is long-term work.

"This chart clearly shows the year-on-year decline trend of carbon emission intensity in Beijing City from 2010 to 2022, in parallel with the continuous improvement of air quality. It is worth noting that despite Beijing City GDP growth of 107% and a 40% increase in motor vehicle ownership, carbon emission intensity has dropped by 50%." Liu Baoxian, deputy director of the Beijing City Bureau of Ecology and Environment, showed everyone the successful experience of Beijing City in promoting high-quality social development by adjusting energy structure, transportation structure, industrial structure, urban greening and refined management, and coordinated control of air pollution and greenhouse gases.

Since 2013, the average concentration of PM2.5 in Beijing City has achieved a significant drop from 89.5 micrograms/cubic meter to 32 micrograms/cubic meter, and the number of excellent days has also increased from 176 days to 286 days, equivalent to an increase of more than three months of blue sky and white clouds. At the same time, the number of days with severe and above pollution dropped sharply from 58 days to 8 days, and the improvement of air quality has achieved remarkable results. During the forum, the PM2.5 concentration in Beijing City reached single digits. The gorgeous sunset and the blue sky complemented each other. Beijing blue and China red jointly painted a beautiful ecological picture of the capital.

Creating green and improving new technologies promote the acceleration of industrial transition

As an important activity in the field of environmental services of the China International Fair for Trade in Services, the new highlight of this forum is to bring together many "hard core" scientific and technological forces to build a high-end platform for communication and display for outstanding enterprises committed to green development.

At the forum, Julia Lipton, Director of Climate Action Planning and Innovation at C40, highly appreciated Beijing City's innovative measures in the industrial field. She pointed out that Beijing has gradually gotten rid of its dependence on fossil fuels through innovative methods, and the digital and intelligent green power grid it has built provides a model for other cities to learn from and will be widely promoted in the C40 network.

Boiler exhaust losses have always been a difficult problem faced by the industry. "Huaneng Beijing Thermal Power Plant successfully put into the gas turbine flue gas waste heat recovery and utilization system in 2023. The new heating capacity will reach 300MW, the new heating area will reach 7.5 million square meters, saving 80 million cubic meters of natural gas every year, and reducing carbon dioxide emissions. 160,000 tons." Bai Xiusen, director of the production management department of Huaneng Beijing Thermal Power Co., Ltd., introduced Huaneng's advanced technology demonstration project in detail. He said: "Beijing City has promoted waste heat utilization as a typical technology and is confident about the widespread application of this technology in the future."

The innovative measures and successful experiences of Beijing City Gas Group and Beijing Chaoyang Environment Group in methane emission control also left a deep impression on the participants.

Not only in the energy field, new low-carbon technologies that create green and improve quality are surging in Beijing's entire industry blueprint.

"Since reaching its carbon peak in 2014, our carbon emissions have dropped to 24% year by year." At the meeting, business representatives from BOE shared their results. By implementing a series of measures such as low-carbon design, low-carbon manufacturing, and low-carbon logistics, BOE has integrated green and low-carbon concepts into all aspects of corporate development and achieved remarkable results.

"We have achieved electrification in the first half, and the second half will open a new chapter of intelligence." BYD Automobile regards the integration of intelligence and electric vehicles as the future direction of the development of new energy vehicles. In July this year, BYD successfully rolled off the production of its 8 millionth new energy vehicle in Thailand, injecting strong impetus into the low-carbon transformation of the automotive industry.

The continuous deepening of low-carbon technology has made Beijing Benz Automobile Co., Ltd.'s planning goals clear and clear. Their ambitious goal of achieving corporate carbon neutrality by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality throughout the product life cycle by 2039 is gradually turning from vision to reality.

While vigorously dispelling non-capital functions and promoting the exit of high-energy-consuming and high-emission enterprises, Beijing City has fully explored green growth points such as new energy, new materials, and digital economy to create new development advantages with new productivity. Green industries such as new energy vehicle manufacturing, wind power equipment manufacturing, energy conservation and environmental protection, and hydrogen energy have achieved rapid development. From January to July this year, the city's output of new energy vehicles, wind turbines, and intelligent robots increased by 4 times, 56% and 30% respectively, and significant progress has been made in industrial green transformation and upgrading.

At this forum, business representatives demonstrated to the world Beijing's positive actions and remarkable achievements in promoting new productivity and green transformation and development by demonstrating advanced technological solutions and high-quality products. It also provided valuable information for other cities. Learn from and reference.

The world gathers wisdom and seeks common ground for green development

Global experience gathers in Beijing, and Beijing contributes to the world in practice.

The Beijing International Metropolitan Clean Air and Climate Action Forum is not only a bright stage for Beijing to showcase its experience and achievements internationally, but also a solid connection for communication and cooperation between intergovernmental and international agencies, foreign government ecological and environmental protection departments, sister cities and non-governmental organizations. bridge.

"This year, we officially launched the Asian regional exchange program." Ms. Glenda Batarina, Executive Vice President of the Asian Clean Air Center (CAA), emphasized,"By deepening regional partnerships, we will work together to enhance policy formulation and coordination capabilities, and deepen our understanding of climate change response and air quality improvement. We earnestly hope that Beijing can share valuable experience with other Asian cities and promote 'Beijing Blue' to more Asian cities."

Gino Van Bikin, Secretary-General of ICLEI, said that by learning from past successful experiences and strengthening existing frameworks and initiatives in the network, we are fully capable of embarking on a feasible path to sustainable development.

The California Air Resources Administration introduced the world's first zero-emission regulation for freight trucks passed by California. The policy aims to encourage the industry and market to independently explore and adopt zero-emission technology solutions that best suit their needs, forming a strong supply side. Driving force. While improving air quality, the regulation also firmly supports more than 26,000 jobs and injects strong growth momentum into the economy.

During the forum, participants conducted in-depth exchanges and discussions on topics such as hot spots and prospects, research and applications, actions and demonstrations, and carbon markets to promote greenhouse gas emission reduction, and reached a broad consensus on establishing important international cooperation mechanisms and platforms in the field of ecological environment.

Zhao Yingmin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, delivered a speech at the main forum and pointed out that China is willing to work with all countries and parties to promote inclusive development through service openness, promote linkage and integration through service cooperation, cultivate development momentum through service innovation, and create a better future through service sharing. Promote the world economy on a track of sustained recovery.

Tan Xuxiang, deputy mayor of the Beijing City People's Government, said that clean air and climate governance are major issues about a community with a shared future for mankind, and we need to work together to respond and fight side by side. Beijing will contribute more to the joint construction of a clean and beautiful world by continuing to fight in depth to defend blue skies, actively promoting green and low-carbon development, and improving ecosystem diversity, stability and sustainability.

The 2024 Beijing International Metropolitan Clean Air and Climate Action Forum promotes exchanges and cooperation on a global scale with a more open, efficient and pragmatic attitude, and gathers powerful forces to jointly address climate change and promote green development. As the capital of China and a global metropolis, Beijing will continue to play a leading role in providing practical models and contributing Beijing's wisdom to the construction of global ecological civilization.