Green and sustainable City will become the development objective of China's Low Carbon City in future

Abstract

Environmental pollution and greenhouse gas emissions are becoming significant environmental issues in China, thus the sustainable development and revival of the country is impossible using the conventional path of encouraging economic growth at the expense of the environment. In response to the global warming, the prices of the traditional energy rise considerably, and a series of environmental problems, China must improve its own mode of economic development. Hundreds of Chinese cities have billions of square meters of buildings and most industry and the annual energy demand is an astronomical figure. China's government is facing increasing pressure in the low carbon international backdrop, and the low carbon city becomes the inevitable developmental direction of Chinese city in the foreseeable future. The description is first centered on energy structure/energy consumption per unit/urbanized status, and urban energy consumption status, and then concerned with the efforts and measures of Chinese government, to realize the energy saving. Finally, we present the developmental prospect and barriers and the promotion measures related to the low carbon city under the government policy, financial incentives and funding supports, etc. © 2014 Li-qun et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.