Guiyang promotes low-carbon city pilot project

Guiyang, capital of Southwest China's Guizhou province, was listed as a low-carbon pilot city in 2010. Since then, the city has been promoting green development and a low-carbon lifestyle.

Focusing on optimizing its economic structure, upgrading energy structure, and promoting energy conservation and efficiency, the city has explored a new approach to low-carbon transformation and development in western China, steadily increasing its overall economic output.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20), Guiyang achieved an average annual GDP growth of 9 percent, ranking highly among provincial capital cities, and decreased carbon dioxide emissions.

Since 2021, Guiyang has continued to advance various policies aimed at peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality, and has launched a number of low-carbon pilot initiatives.

It has been promoting low-carbon pilot projects in industries, energy, construction, and transportation, striving to create a comprehensive low-carbon demonstration system.

In 2013, Guiyang introduced the first local ecological civilization regulation in China and established the first ecological protection prosecution institution. Moreover, Guiyang and Guian have jointly promoted green financial reform and innovation, with Guiyang accounting for 48.09 percent of the province's green loan balance as of 2022.

Guiyang has also established a Guiyang-Guian forest carbon trading system. As of December 2022, 15 forest carbon trading contracts were signed, covering an area of 54.2 hectares with a trade value of approximately 3.15 million yuan ($436,475.71).

In response to the national demand for the development and utilization of karst carbon sinks, Guiyang has taken the lead in the nation in developing standards and methodologies for monitoring and calculating artificial afforestation and grass planting to increase the number of karst carbon sinks. These efforts help Guizhou to promote the pilot demonstration project of karst carbon sink monitoring, accounting and evaluation, and carry out voluntary carbon emission reduction trading.