Low-carbon lifestyles gain extra credit

Thanks to the incentives provided by the Wuhan mini program, people like Wei feel even more motivated to take a low-carbon path.

Wei has exchanged credits accumulated in the mini program for wine and fluffy toys. Other rewards included discounts on hot-and-dry noodles, a popular local delicacy, or a chance to enter the lottery to take part in a marathon.

More recently, the Wutanjianghu mini program teamed up with the Wuhan branch of China Minsheng Bank on March 1 for a loan offsetting initiative, whereby users can use their points to reduce a loan's interest by as much as 2,000 yuan per year.

"This is very attractive to me. The credits I make every month from practicing low-carbon actions are enough to offset more than 100 yuan. It's possible that I can accumulate enough credits to offset the maximum amount of interest this year," Wei said.

Wang Qinxin, a 53-year-old retiree, has accumulated 220,000 grams of carbon credits on the platform since 2023.

"I use the mini program now almost every day, with shared bikes my most frequent low-carbon practice," Wang said.

Every time a user takes a public bus, the mini program will award them 212.5 grams of carbon credits. Each kilometer traveled by subway earns 78.4 grams of carbon credits, and each kilometer by shared bike earns 93.3 grams. Once 5,000 grams are accumulated, users can trade them in for half a dozen eggs.

According to Liu Shu, chairman of Wuhan Carbon Inclusion Management Co, the mini program has 1.6 million users. That number soared by 100,000 in the days following the introduction of the loan interest offsetting initiative, he said.

Emission reductions recorded on the mini program have gone beyond 30,000 metric tons, he added.

A total of seven low-carbon activities have been incorporated into the mini program so far, including commuting via public bus and subway, riding shared bikes, choosing electric vehicles on car-hailing platforms and refusing disposable plastic bags, Liu said.

Despite the difficulty of developing tailored, rigorous methodologies for calculating emissions in new settings, further activities will be added, the chairman said.