Photo taken on Aug. 25, 2016 shows the Hangzhou International Expo Center in Hangzhou, capital of east China's Zhejiang Province. The 11th G20 summit will be held in Hangzhou from Sept. 4 to 5. (Xinhua/Li Xin)
The eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou is poised to offer the world the greenest G20 summit through a tree-planting project to offset carbon emissions during the meeting, underlining the country's commitment to green growth.[Special Coverage]
The project aims to plant more than 22 hectares of trees in the Hangzhou suburbs next spring which, over the next 20 years, are expected to absorb all greenhouse gases discharged during the summit, thus making the Hangzhou gathering the first G20 leaders' meeting to implement the concept of "carbon neutrality."
It also testifies to China's commitment to green growth, an important subject at this year's G20 leaders' meeting, which opens Sunday with the theme of "Toward an Innovative, Invigorated, Interconnected and Inclusive World Economy".
EPITOME OF GREEN CAUSE
Hangzhou, whose lake-front scenery has inspired generations of painters and poets, has evolved into an epitome of China's endeavors in promoting green growth.
Among its eco-friendly projects, it boasts the world's largest bike share program, with 78,000 bicycles scattered across the city at around 2,700 stations.
"There are so many city bikes that, in the downtown of the city, you cannot go five minutes without seeing one," a citizen said.
Meanwhile, to clean up the environment, the city government has employed modern technologies such as replacing diesel buses with electric ones.
Hangzhou has been replacing diesel buses since 2008. Up to now, official statistics show 22,000 new-energy buses have been deployed on 90 percent of the bus routes in the city. That puts Hangzhou in the vanguard of green energy transportation development.
Thanks to such efforts, Hangzhou, in the first half of 2016, accumulated 123 days of good air quality, and the PM 2.5 concentration declined by 7.7 percent, according to official data.
GREEN GROWTH AGENDA
Recognizing its vital significance, G20 economies agreed at their summit as early as in 2009 to phase out subsidies for oil and other carbon dioxide-spewing fossil fuels in the "medium term" as part of efforts to combat global warming.
The pledge was hailed by the international community as a breakthrough, but was lamented for its lack of progress and impetus for years. Hopes are running high that China, host of the G20 summitry for the first time, will give it a boost.
Beijing will make green finance the first time on the G20 agenda to mobilize more investment in environmentally friendly projects. Besides, climate change and other green initiatives are expected to form a major part of the gathering.
John Kirton, co-director of G20 Research Group at the University of Toronto, highlighted green growth as one of the three areas that the world leaders at the summit should coordinate a fiscal stimulus to support.
