Jiang Wanrong, a senior official at China’s Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said Chinese cities will turn against the traditional development model of “massive construction with massive emissions” to accelerate the reduction of carbon emissions. China was the world’s largest carbon emitter last year and plans to hit peak emissions by 2030, while aiming to become carbon-neutral by 2060.
“Responding to climate change is a complex system of engineering, and a holistic approach must be used to solve systemic problems,” said Jiang while speaking at the national observance of World Cities Day in China. The three-day conference that concluded Monday was part of the first Sustainable Development Goals Cities Global Conference, jointly organized by the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Shanghai government, and U.N.-Habitat.
