Hainan's low carbon action, one kilowatt hour at a time

HAIKOU, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Among the green trees, hat-shaped, brim-like, large-angle structures designed for shade appear on many buildings in the Hainan Resort Software Community (RSC). The shading designs make it cool enough so that air conditioners are not needed.

"We made this to try to reduce the consumption of even one kilowatt hour of electricity," said Luan Huzi, an architect of the RSC.

The RSC, a park focusing on the internet industry, received a revenue of over 100 billion yuan (about 14.9 billion U.S. dollars) last year, but its carbon emission per 10,000 yuan of output value is only two kilograms, which is very low.

In recent years, Hainan has been exploring low carbon development by planning in advance, optimizing energy structure, and exploring the potential of ocean carbon.

"We require companies to sign carbon emission agreements before moving in and strictly implement low-carbon development," said Gong Xuanyuan, deputy head of the planning department of Jiangdong New Area Administration Bureau.

"Low carbon experiments" have been carried out in cities and counties and major industrial parks in Hainan. Sanya City, Qiongzhong Li and Miao Autonomous County were selected for the third batch of the national low-carbon pilot city list, and the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone was awarded APEC's low-carbon model town.

The province has made efforts to optimize its energy structure by banning new coal-fired power plants, and developing nuclear power, as well as wind power, gas power, and photovoltaic power. It has also expanded the import of clean electricity from outside the province.

The province has built a number of clean energy projects in recent years. In 2021, the proportion of installed capacity of clean energy in Hainan reached 70 percent, 23 percentage points higher than the national average.

As an island province with rich ocean carbon resources, Hainan has proposed to deepen the study of ocean carbon sinks.

On May 31, Hainan's first ocean carbon ecological product was traded. More than 3,000 tonnes of carbon sinks generated by the Sanjiang farm's mangrove restoration project in Haikou over the past five years were sold to enterprises.

At the beginning of this year, the Hainan international ocean carbon research center and the Hainan international carbon emission trading center were launched.

"The two centers will help accelerate the research on the development standards and measurement methodologies of ocean carbon projects and further explore the potential of ocean carbon resources in Hainan," said Wang Licheng, vice president of Hainan academy of environmental sciences.