Zhejiang Jinhua Lishui was selected as a national pilot list for deepening the construction of climate-resilient cities
Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment released a pilot list for deepening the construction of climate-resilient cities. 39 cities (districts) across the country were selected, including Jinhua and Lishui of Zhejiang among them. As the core gathering area of human production and life, how should cities respond to climate change? How will the pilot projects in Jinhua and Lishui be carried out?
Pilot integrates local characteristics
In recent years, extreme weather has hit frequently, and people often lament that "the climate is abnormal."
"Addressing climate change is urgent, especially in cities." Xie Huiming, deputy dean of the School of Business of Ningbo University and director of the Yangtze River Delta Ecological Civilization Research Center, believes that the outstanding impact of climate change on cities is mainly reflected in the urban heat island effect, infrastructure vulnerability, ecological and green space management, water resources management challenges, population density and public health.
According to the requirements of the pilot notice, Lishui and Jinhua have not light tasks-improving the urban climate change adaptation governance system, strengthening urban climate change impact and risk assessment, strengthening urban climate change adaptation capacity building, and strengthening extreme weather and climate event risk monitoring, early warning and emergency management, ensuring safe operation of urban transportation, and promoting healthy adaptation actions to urban climate change.
"There are many tasks that need to be refined in each aspect." Yu Weizhen, deputy secretary of the Party Committee and deputy director of the Ecological Environment Bureau of Lishui City, said that taking improving the urban climate change adaptation governance system as an example, Lishui will explore and formulate pilot plans to deepen adaptation to climate change, improve cross-departmental work coordination mechanisms, and improve adaptation to climate change supporting mechanisms and basic capabilities.
"In view of the different development types, factor endowments, and climate types of each pilot, each city (district) also has innovative and distinctive pilot content." The relevant person in charge of the Jinhua City Ecological Environment Bureau said that Jinhua has a huge logistics industry, and the pilot will further explore the green development of the manufacturing and logistics industries, promote the implementation of carbon labeling for export products of manufacturing companies, establish a green supply chain institutional system, and guide enterprises to plan and build or transform a number of green warehousing and logistics demonstration projects.
Lishui will conduct personalized pilots in line with Lishui's high-quality green development direction such as improving urban ecosystem service functions and exploring the realization of the value of climate ecological products, exploring nature-based adaptation solutions to climate change, creating an ecological corridor for Oujiang River, and boosting Lishui. Become a national leading area for biodiversity conservation, create a climate tourism and health care economic belt, and promote the relocation of immigrants in climate-sensitive areas.
To "slow down" and "adapt"
Chen Leiyan, Party Secretary and Director of the Ecological Environment Bureau of Jinhua City, said that greenhouse gas emissions, fossil fuel burning, industrial activities, deforestation, agricultural activities and urbanization are the main causes of climate change. Therefore, if you want to build a climate-resilient city, the basic principles to follow are: To both "mitigate" and "adapt", we need to reduce carbon emissions and increase urban resilience (which refers to the ability of cities to withstand disasters, mitigate disaster losses, and rationally allocate resources to quickly recover from disasters).
In Jinhua City, blue pure electric BRT bus rapid transit buses can be seen everywhere shuttling through various bus stops. No pollutant emissions and no noise are their biggest characteristics. In recent years, the city of Jinhua has advocated low-carbon travel and upgraded buses to green energy vehicles. Currently, green public transportation vehicles account for nearly 80%(100% in the Main City).
"The biggest factor affecting climate change is greenhouse gas emissions." Chen Leiyan said that reducing carbon dioxide and other gas emissions through multiple channels can optimize the energy structure and improve energy efficiency, thereby reducing the negative impact on the environment.
As a national-level low-carbon city pilot, Jinhua has actively helped enterprises reduce carbon emissions and emissions for many years, established carbon accounts for more than 4000 industrial enterprises above designated size, and issued 522 carbon account loans of 6.326 billion yuan. "This loan allowed us to achieve semi-automated production through technological transformation." The person in charge of Jinhua City Jinlin Tools Co., Ltd. said that after the technological transformation, the company can save about 60% of its electricity and energy, and the annual carbon emission reduction is 157 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.
According to statistics, during the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, Jinhua's carbon intensity dropped by 24.35%, exceeding the goals and tasks assigned by the Zhejiang Province government and laying a good foundation for Jinhua's resilient city construction.
Lishui, which was included in the country's first batch of pilot projects for the construction of climate-resilient cities in 2017, has taken the lead in exploring and improving urban climate resilience for many years and has deeply cultivated a number of outstanding results.
Heping Park, located in the Dongcheng area of Liandu District, Lishui City, attracts many citizens for a walk during the sultry plum rainy season. "There is no standing water here. As soon as the rain falls, it will be sucked away by the ground. It is very cool. It is the favorite back garden of residents in our surrounding communities in summer." said Ms. Wu, a citizen of Lishui.
In order to improve the city's flood control, water storage and cooling capabilities, Lishui has actively built a sponge city in recent years. Heping Park is one of the projects benefiting the people. It integrates ecological conservation, leisure and fitness, interesting science popularization, and city image display. It has water seepage, resistance, pressure resistance, wear-resistance, anti-slip, sound absorption and noise reduction and other characteristics can make urban roads no longer heat up.
Lishui has also launched the planning and construction of urban wind corridors and supporting infrastructure, and actively built green wind corridors and ecological corridors that run through the city. There are no high-rise buildings around them. The reserved air ducts can reduce the wind resistance of buildings, increase shading vegetation, and attract cool wind. Pass through the corridor to alleviate the urban heat island effect and turbid island effect.
"In terms of finance, we guide and leverage more funds into the field of addressing climate change." Yu Weizhen said that as the first batch of climate investment and financing pilots in the country and the province's first, Lishui has formulated and issued more than 20 pilot supporting policies such as the "Climate Investment and Financing Pilot Work Plan for Lishui City, Zhejiang Province". It has successively established 47 financial institutions with climate investment and financing characteristics such as green branches and zero-carbon financial outlets, and developed more than 30 innovative climate investment and financing financial products, and gave full play to green insurance in terms of climate risk mitigation and coverage, and innovatively promoted catastrophe insurance, Special financial products such as agricultural product meteorological index insurance provide all personnel in Lishui with a catastrophe insurance amount of 175 million yuan and agricultural risk protection of 105 million yuan.
Lishui has also made useful explorations in early warning and disaster prevention. By introducing technologies such as the Internet of Things, satellite remote sensing, low-altitude aerial survey and automatic monitoring, an ecological environment monitoring and monitoring system integrating heaven, earth and air covering the city has been formed, and the "Garden Cloud" smart collaborative digital platform has been built, which can realize digital early warning of disaster risks. Forecast, the current coverage rate of meteorological warning information reaches 97.8%.
Starting from "people"
The essence of a city is still the gathering of people. Xie Huiming believes that responding to climate change and building climate-resilient cities requires the support and cooperation of all parties.
Citizens need to strengthen their knowledge and skills to adapt to climate change and improve their awareness of disaster prevention and self-rescue capabilities. Cultivate yourself to practice the concept of a climate-resilient city in daily life, for example, save water, electricity, and gas, adopt energy-saving equipment and energy-saving home appliances, and reduce personal carbon emissions; choose low-carbon travel such as walking, cycling, and taking public transportation. Ways to reduce carbon emissions from transportation; purchase environmentally friendly products; actively participate in community environmental protection activities; increase environmental awareness, and encourage people around you to pay attention to climate change issues.
The implementation of various climate-resilient city construction measures is inseparable from community participation, which is also the "last mile" to address climate change.
Enterprises are participants and operators in urban infrastructure construction, as well as producers and sellers of various commodities, all of which are closely related to the construction of climate-resilient cities. When producing, enterprises should promote green production, promote the construction of green supply chains, and choose environmentally friendly and low-carbon raw materials and products; implement energy-saving technologies, optimize production processes, and reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions; actively respond to and reasonably circumvent carbon tariffs, and get rid of Reliance on green subsidies; actively participate in investing in green infrastructure projects such as sponge cities, green buildings, and disaster prevention and reduction to support the construction of climate-resilient cities.
