Roundup: Combating climate change, Chinese and US local governments in action

At the Climate Leaders Summit in Los Angeles on Tuesday and Wednesday, about two dozens of China and U.S. local governments announced their ambitious plans to combat the climate change.

In the China-U.S. Climate Leaders' Declaration signed Tuesday by China's Beijing, Sichuan, Hainan, Guangzhou and U.S. California, Connecticut, Los Angeles, New York, Washington D.C. among around a dozen other provinces, states and cities, all of the participants set their goals of emission reduction in the next decades.

Eleven Chinese provinces and cities are committed to achieve the peaking of CO2 emissions by 2020 to 2030, while U.S. states and cities committing to increase their percentage of renewable energy and reduce greenhouse gas emission by a substantial amount, such as California, a leading state in the country, is going to reduce emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 and 80 percent by 2050, which is the most ambitious target in North America.

"As home to over half the world's population that's responsible for 70 percent of the planet's greenhouse gas emissions, cities are ground zero in the fight against climate change," said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

"With this Declaration, we are turning ambitious promises into tangible and specific progress -- progress that not only meets national emissions goals, but surpasses them. As mayors, it's our mandate to create more livable cities, but it's our calling to create a more livable world."

Los Angeles has announced to reduce emission by 45 percent by 2025, 60 percent by 2030, and 80 percen by 2050 on the 1990 baseline.

The two-day summit with the full name as the First Session of the U.S.-China Climate-Smart/Low-Carbon Cities Summit, provided a platform for the leading cities in China and the U.S. to exchange their ideas and experience on combating climate change.

"Cities are vital in dealing with climate change," said Kevin Austin, Deputy Executive Director of the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, which connects 82 of the world's big cities, representing over 600 million people and one quarter of the world's GDP.

Through tax incentives, regulations and other measures, cities are encouraging the private sectors to do more in combating climate change.

"The best solution for a city is the solution of other city," Austin said.

Mayor Annise Parker from Houston, the U.S. fossil fuel capital, said in her speech that the city is "borrowing" ideas from other cities to reduce carbon emission, including using more renewable energy, sharing bicycle and change the street light bulbs to LED.

"Cities in China and the U.S. have many differences," said Wu Daohong, President of Beijing Shenwu Environment and Energy Technology, a Chinese company working on improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions, "Such as there are only 3 e-buses in London, but there are over 3,000 in Shenzhen. There are only 8.5 million population in New York, but there are 22 million in Beijing. "

"But their goals and attitudes in combatting climate change are the same," he told Xinhua after a round-table talk of business leaders during the conference on Wednesday. Enditem