China's climate change efforts

5. Increasing Carbon Sink

Increasing forest carbon sink. China is continuously carrying out ecological protection projects, such as the key shelterbelt construction project in northwest, northeast and north China and along the Yangtze River, and projects to return farmland to forest, natural forest protection project, the program to control sandstorms in the Beijing and Tianjin area. It has carried out a pilot afforestation project with an aim to expand carbon sinks, enhanced sustainable forest management, and increased the forest stock volume. The central finance has raised the standard for afforestation investment subsidy from RMB100 to 200 per mu, and established the China Green Carbon Fund. Currently, China's man-made forest reserve has reached 62 million ha; its national forest coverage has reached 195 million ha, with the forest coverage rate rising from 18.21 percent in 2005 to 20.36 percent in 2010, with a forest stock volume of 13.721 billion cu m. China's total carbon storage in forest vegetation has reached 7.811 billion tons.

Improving farmland and grassland carbon sinks. China is implementing the systems to promote grass-livestock balance, prohibiting or temporarily banning pasturing in certain areas, and regionally rotating pasturing, so as to control the livestock-carrying capacity of pastures and curb pasture degeneration. It is expanding the project of returning grazing land to grassland, strengthening the construction of man-made forage meadows and irrigated pastures, enhancing the prevention and control of grassland natural disasters, and increasing the grassland coverage rate and grassland carbon sinks. By 2010, protective farming technology had been applied to an area of 64.75 million mu; the no-tillage mechanical seeding area had reached 167 million mu; and mechanically-crushed straw had been returned to farmland in a total area of 428 million mu.

6. Promoting Low-carbon Development in Localities

Promoting low-carbon pilot projects in selected provinces and cities. In 2010, China launched a national "low-carbon province and low-carbon city" experimental project. The first batch of selected localities included five provinces, namely, Guangdong, Hubei, Liaoning, Shaanxi and Yunnan, and eight cities, namely, Tianjin, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Xiamen, Shenzhen, Guiyang, Nanchang and Baoding. Currently, all the pilot provinces and cities have established leading work teams, formulated implementation schemes, and promulgated their respective goals for carbon intensity reduction in the Twelfth Five-Year Plan period and 2020. They have also vigorously promoted the transformation of the local economic development mode, took major actions to advance the construction of key low-carbon development projects, and vigorously developed low-carbon industries to promote green and low-carbon development.

Actively drawing on low-carbon development experience. To build a "culture-enriched, technology-empowered and environmentally-friendly Beijing," Beijing, the capital city of China, has accelerated the development of the green, low-carbon and circular economy, vigorously developed strategic newly emerging industries and modern service industries, quickened the low-carbon transformation of existing buildings and transport systems, and advocated low-carbon consumption and a low-carbon lifestyle. Shanghai has sped up the pace of optimizing its energy structure, launched low-carbon development pilot projects in Hongqiao CBD and Chongming Island, implemented the concept of low-carbon development in the design, construction and operation of the Shanghai World Expo Park, and carried out "voluntary emission reduction activities to achieve a low-carbon World Expo." Jiangsu Province has selected four cities, ten industrial parks and ten enterprises for pilot experiments in developing a low-carbon economy.