(Ecns.cn)--With climate change exerting ever greater influence over the planet, achieving green low-carbon development has become a common goal. On August 9, a photography exhibition titled "Low-carbon Development, Low-carbon Life" was organized by China News Week in Beijing to draw attention to the issue.
Supported by the government, the exhibition revealed existing environmental problems and China's efforts to combat the negative impacts.
An award ceremony was also held, in which several state-owned companies were hailed as "Model Low-carbon Practitioners," including the China National Petroleum Corporation, the China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation and the Ping An Insurance Group.
The 2010 Living Planet Report reveals that humanity's ecological footprint has more than doubled since 1966. In 2007 alone, humanity used the equivalent of 1.5 planets to support its activities.
Even with modest UN projections for population growth, consumption and climate change, by 2030 humanity will need the capacity of two Earths to absorb carbon dioxide waste and keep up with natural resource consumption.
Government: policy support
In response, Jia Feng, deputy director of the Center for Environmental Education & Communications under the Ministry of Environmental Protection, stressed that the government should shoulder its responsibilities
Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission, pointed out at the exhibition that China is one of the countries most affecting climate change, therefore the Chinese government has launched a series of policies to improve the situation.
Xie added that according to the Twelfth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, by 2015 China's energy consumption and carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions per unit of GDP would drop 16% and 17% below 2010 levels, respectively.
"The goals have created an anti-automobile-driving mechanism, which will lead the economy to go green," he explained.
Beijing vice governor Hong Feng used the capital city as an example, saying that Beijing's energy consumption per 10,000 yuan ($1,563) of GDP fell 26.59% during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period, fostering an economic development mode built on low consumption, low emissions and high returns.
Hong attached primary importance to innovation, adding that Beijing will step up efforts to develop emerging industries of strategic importance, including information technology, new energy, energy conservation and environmental protection.
Beijing, Hong noted, will also emphasize the continuous optimization of its energy structure. "By 2015, high-grade energy will take up more than 80% of the total; forest coverage will reach 40%，and the green space ratio will reach 57%."
Making Beijing a livable city is also the key to building a green capital. According to Hong, Beijing will eliminate 400,000 old vehicles in a move to raise the emission standard.
