Assisting Chinese Cities to Peak their GHG Emissions

In September 2015 at the first U.S.-China Climate-Smart/Low-Carbon Cities Summit, China’s Alliance of Pioneer Peaking Cities (APPC) announced that 23 cities and provinces are now members and committed to peaking emissions by or before 2030. In addition, these cities committed to report on greenhouse gas (GHG) inventories, establish climate action plans, and enhance bilateral and multilateral partnership and cooperation. These cities and provinces represent about 16.8 percent of China’s population, 27.5 percent of national GDP, and 15.6 percent of national carbon dioxide emissions. By 2050, over 80% of Chinese population will be living in cities.

With industry sector accounting for over 65% of primary energy use and about 70% of total GHG emissions in China, it is quite common to find manufacturing plants (including heavy industries) within the boundary of many cities in China. Therefore, peaking GHG emissions in Chinese cities will not be possible without addressing the energy use and GHG emissions in industries located in those cities.

One of the APPC cities is Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province. Wuhan committed to achieve the peaking of GHG emissions by 2022. Global Efficiency Intelligence (GEI) has joined Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in their effort to help the city of Wuhan to peak its industrial GHG emissions by 2022. In this project, RMI and GEI are working with local partners to conduct both technical and policy analysis in order to come up with a concrete action plan and practical suggestions for the city of Wuhan to achieve its emission peaking goal. The aim is to develop methodologies and tools that can be replicated across other cities in China to help them with their GHG emissions peaking targets.