Wuxi, a Famous City of Industry and Commerce, Explores a New Path to "Carbon Peak"

WUXI, China, May 18, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- On May 19, the 2021 Carbon Peak Carbon Neutrality Summit was held in Wuxi to promote Wuxi to achieve high-quality development under the zero-carbon constraint, and the goal of Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality as soon as possible for the whole country and the Yangtze River Delta, and to promote the economy to make contributions to the high-level green development of society, according to the Organizing Committee of the Carbon Peak Carbon Neutrality Summit.

Xie Zhenhua, China's Special Envoy for climate change, Claire O'Neill, President of the Climate Change Department of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, and former Minister of Energy and Clean Development of the United Kingdom, including 500 guests attended the meeting.

Wuxi was once an important birthplace of China's national industry and commerce. Today, its per capita GDP still ranks first among all districts and cities in Jiangsu. However, the highly developed industry has also caused the total carbon emissions to remain high. The high-carbon energy structure is a common problem in the Yangtze River Delta.

Take Wuxi High-tech Zone as an example. This area is a modern industrial highland in Wuxi. The output value of the integrated circuit industry accounts for 11.2% of the country. In 2020, the total energy consumption of high-tech zone is equivalent to 4 million tons of standard coal, of which 1.62 million tons of electricity are consumed. In power consumption, fossil energy power generation accounts for nearly 90%.

Data also show that in 2020, the energy consumption per unit of GDP in the district is only 0.205 tons of standard coal per 10,000 yuan, which is 44.2% of the national high-tech zone average and 58.7% of the province's average, which is at the advanced level of industrial zones in developed countries in the world.

On the eve of this summit, Wuxi High-tech Zone announced that it will build a zero-carbon technology industrial park in Wuxi. This is another important measure of Wuxi to promote green and low-carbon development. According to the plan, it is estimated that by 2025, Wuxi's clean energy will account for 60%.