Policy mix vital to cut emissions by construction industry

China's efforts to cut carbon emissions along with its timetable should be carried out in a step-specific and well-calibrated manner, while urban improvement and the construction industry are expected to play critical roles, experts said.

China has set its goal of peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060. The construction industry will have a critical role to play on this front.

Those views were reflected in a seminar in Beijing in late August on the future of urban development and the construction industry held by the International Finance Forum (IFF), a Beijing-based nongovernmental organization mainly focusing on global topics such as climate change, carbon neutrality and biodiversity.

A report issued by China Building Materials Federation showed that in 2018, carbon emissions from the construction sector in China accounted for 51.3 percent of the national total.

Most experts believe that on the policy front, a multi-pronged policy mix is needed to effectively help urban construction reduce carbon emissions.

Wang Kai, head of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design, said at the forum that since 2007, a raft of measures for carbon reduction and greener urban growth have been put in place on various fronts by different ministries. Now, a more holistic approach is needed as a policy framework guiding urban construction.

Specifically, he said different cities and regions need to have different timetables and road maps under the national goal.

"This is because the urbanization rate and population growth among cities and regions can be tremendously different," Wang said. "Holistic research is very much-needed in setting up their own goals instead of the one-cut-fits-all approach. To illustrate this, the designs of buildings in counties and cities need to be different."

He suggested efforts can be started in communities as they are the "cells" of cities, particularly for metropolises like Shanghai and Beijing. Wang said he and the academy have been working on piloting the building of small-scale new energy systems in small communities.

China's National Development and Reform Commission, the country's top economic regulator, said in August the country will rectify "campaign-style" carbon reductions.

It said China will rectify deviations in its effort to cut carbon emissions while resolutely curbing the pell-mell development of high-energy intensity and highly pollutive projects.

In a similar vein, Lin Borong, a professor at the School of Architecture at Tsinghua University, believes that measures toward city construction refining need to consider both new and old buildings. For example, about 25 percent of existing buildings in Beijing were built before the year 2000. Tremendous refining efforts are needed to upgrade their energy-saving facilities.

Some believe that proper competition among cities also has its bright side. Qiu Baoxing, former vice-minister of housing and urban-rural development, noted at the seminar that greener growth and carbon reduction may be a new goal factoring into competition among cities.

"In the past four decades, economic growth has been the major target driving competition among cities. Going forward, under the new goal for carbon emission reductions, greener growth and less carbon emissions will become new targets of competition among cities," he said. "Done properly, this will hopefully accelerate the entire process in reaching our national goal."