Context:

Cities account for over 75 percent of China’s carbon emissions. In the coming 30 years, urbanization will continue to be the main driving force of China’s emission growth. Different urban development patterns will lead to completely different emission horizons, and will have a long-term lock-in effect. Given its tremendous scale (to urbanize 300 million more population by 2050), urbanization will be a determining factor for realizing China’s goals of carbon peaking by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, and global climate goals as well. Considering its comprehensiveness, Energy Foundation China has established the Urbanization Task Force to coordinate cross-sector, cross-program integration toward deep urban decarbonization.Taskforce Strategy Overview

The Overarching Goal:

The Urbanization Task Force aims to help redefine China’s urbanization onto a low carbon pathway through systematic intervention, so that low carbon urbanization helps reduce at least 5.4 gigatonnes of carbon emissions per year by 2050, compared to the business-as-usual scenario.

Initiatives:

1. People: Understand social demographic and demand patterns, foster healthy agglomeration, and decarbonize consumption through behavior change;
2. Land and space: Minimize urban footprint and optimize urban form;
3. Housing and infrastructure: Optimize housing and key urban infrastructure supply in terms of quality, scale, structure, and energy efficiency;
4. Industry and services: Coordinate urbanization and industry transition;
5. Fiscal and finance: Reform municipal fiscal policy and innovate urban finance mechanisms;
6. Governance: Promote cross-sector, cross-department integration, data transparency, and new technology application in urban governance.