UN Official Hails China's Efforts on Green Economy

An official with the United Nations has hailed China's efforts on promoting low-carbon economy, hoping China to attract more international investment and cooperation to make its economy greener.

China has gained impressive achievements in promoting low-carbon technology and developing new strategic industries, James Zhan, director of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development's investment and enterprise division, said at a summit of a five-day low-carbon forum and exhibition.

The event was held in Nanchang, capital of central China's Jiangxi Province, starting Nov. 11.

China is the biggest investor in new energy sector in the world as the country is devoted to shifting its traditional energy-intensive and polluting development pattern to a greener one, he said.

To save energy and cut emissions, China has rolled out a series of measures including developing green technologies and new strategic industries, phasing out outdated polluting industrial capacities, advancing service sector and exploring low-carbon trading market.

The government pledged to cut energy consumption per unit of gross domestic product by 16 percent and slash emission of carbon dioxide by 17 percent by 2015, compared with 2010 levels.

China will invest 3 trillion yuan (about US$473.1 billion) in 2011-2015 in environment protection, said Wu Xiaoqing, Vice Minister of Environmental Protection, at the summit.

Zhan called for all nations to increase support for green economy to deal with climate change. Nations should add at least US$1.9 trillion in developing green economy in the following 30 to 40 years, 1 trillion of which comes from developing countries, he said.

He encouraged developing countries to introduce more international investment to create a low-carbon economy.