Shanghai aims to see carbon dioxide emissions peak by 2025

Shanghai aims to bring the city's carbon dioxide emissions to a peak before 2025, five years ahead of the national target of 2030, local authorities said on Jan 24.

The target was announced in the municipal government work report delivered by the city's mayor Gong Zheng at the ongoing fifth session of the 15th Shanghai Municipal People's Congress.

Shanghai will formulate a citywide action plan to promote energy conservation and carbon reduction in key fields such as electricity, steel and chemical industries, according to the report.

The plan includes lowering the proportion of total coal consumption in primary energy consumption to about 30 percent and increasing the proportion of natural gas consumption to about 15 percent.

In 2021, Shanghai plans to plant 3,333.3 hectares of forests and 1,000 hectares of green land, aiming to achieve a forest coverage rate of 19.5 percent by 2025, the report said.

Shanghai reported a 36-percent decrease in annual average PM2.5 density in the last five years. In 2021, the city's environmental protection investment will account for about 3 percent of its GDP, Gong said.

New energy vehicles are also the focus of low-carbon development in the next step, he said, adding that Shanghai will set up 10,000 public charging piles in 2021 and 200,000 by 2025.

China has announced that it would strive to bring carbon dioxide emissions to a peak before 2030 and become carbon neutral before 2060 to tackle climate change.