Low-carbon Expo plan released

The Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination and several Shanghai government agencies jointly released a Comprehensive Roadmap of Low-carbon Expo last Saturday.

Huang Jianzhi, deputy director general of the Bureau of Shanghai World Expo Coordination, introduced the formation and development of the event's low-carbon concept in a news conference.

During the conference, officials reviewed the World Expo's 160 years of history, saying that low-carbon and its practices are the theme of the World Expo Shanghai.

The Expo site's designing, pavilions' construction, use and site operation are all in line with the low-carbon environmental protection concept, officials said.

Through low-carbon technologies and vast green land, the Expo will offset 60 to 70 percent of carbon emission before the event ends on October 31 and finally reach carbon balance in four to five years after the World Expo closes.

The English version of the voluntary emission reduction online platform was launched at www.2010expover.org today. It was expected to guide low-carbon lifestyle and teach enterprises and individuals how to offset their carbon emission, officials said.

The Expo has adopted advanced technologies such as energy saving, environmental and ecological protection like solar energy, LED lighting, earth source heat bump, rainwater reuse, river water cooling, pneumatic garbage collection and water saving irrigation. Those technologies will be applied to urban construction in the city and help promote the development of low-carbon industries after the event, officials said.

"Since the Expo opened on May 1, the solar photovoltaic power inside the zone has generated 1.2 million kilowatt-hours and water cooling technologies saved 5.64 million kilowatt-hours of power on air conditioning," said Sun Jian, vice director of Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau.

More than half of the Expo Site has been covered by greenery belts or parks, more than 80 percent pavilions have built gardens on their roofs, official revealed.

More than 20 percent of the site's area were converted from old buildings. More than 60 percent of the road surfaces are made of construction garbage and steel slag. In the site, 432 new energy vehicles run on green energy. The use of clean energy as well as renewable energy surpassed 50 percent, officials said.

"All green technologies in the first month saved 12,700 tons of carbon dioxide emission compared with using traditional technologies," officials said.

Shanghai experiment rainwater collecting and recycling systems on new public projects such as governmental buildings, stations, airports and coach terminal buildings in the 12th five-year plan (2010 to 2015). The project of roof gardening also is expected to be promoted in some public buildings and some residential complexes in the following five years to help achieve a low-carbon city, officials revealed.