Qihe county pursues low-carbon development

Researchers conduct an experiment at a lab in Qihe. [Photo by Kang Shilei and Sun Shunyi for chinadaily.com.cn]

Traditional industries in Qihe, a county in Dezhou, Shandong province, have pursued low-carbon development through green transformation.

Since last year, Qihe has implemented 100 technological upgrading projects in major industries, with the added value of core digital sectors accounting for over 5 percent of the industrial added value, said Huang Jihui, deputy director of the industry and information technology bureau of Qihe.

Qihe will build distributed and centralized photovoltaic projects with respective capacities of 500 megawatts. They are expected to generate 1 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 997,000 metric tons per year.

The county has also afforested its section of the Yellow River with an additional 20,000 mu (1,333.33 hectares) of green spaces annually, treated 22 rivers, and established 110 parks over the years, becoming the province's first county-level international garden city. (Edited by Gong Jun)