'Invest in renewable energy transition'

China could decouple its economic growth from its carbon footprint by putting greater emphasis on transition to renewable energies and the improvement of energy efficiency, said the head of the United Nations Environment Programme.

Air quality is a challenge shared by many major cities in the world and a lesson that Beijing and other cities has learned is putting a systematic approach in place, Achim Steiner, executive director of UNEP, said in an interview with China Daily on Monday.

China has begun a long journey that could meet the international standards for air quality in the future and it can move faster by increasing emission standards and optimizing its energy mix from coal toward other sources of energy.