Measures for curbing pollution to be fortified

As the annual sessions of the top legislative body and political advisory body continue, China Daily collected questions on issues that netizens care most about and solicited answers from political advisers, legislators and senior government officials.

The question

What are the strategies to reduce carbon emissions and pollution before the 2022 Winter Olympic Games?

A netizen who goes by the name "Henry Barshevsky"

The answer

China has taken comprehensive measures to reduce carbon emissions in the past few years, including efforts to increase energy efficiency in industrial production, transportation, building construction and other fields.

These measures will be strengthened during the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) in a bid to achieve the 2020 goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 45 percent, compared with 2005 levels.

The central government will further optimize energy consumption by encouraging the wider use of nonfossil fuels, such as wind and solar power, and by reducing coal consumption.

In the 13th Five-Year Plan, nonfossil fuels will become a larger primary energy source, increasing from 12 percent last year to 15 percent by 2020.

In addition, China will continue to promote low-carbon urban planning with the pursuit of green and sustainable growth, growth in the carbon credits trading system and an increase in the forest carbon sink, in which a natural reservoir stores carbon-containing chemical compounds.

To facilitate implementation, China will accelerate the legislative process regarding climate change and build on the existing basic framework for protective legislation.