From November 4th to 5th, 2021 Xin ‘anjiang Green Development Forum and Ecological Products Expo was held in Huangshan City. The meeting was co-sponsored by the Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the China Academy of Fiscal Science, the Yangtze River Delta Office of Anhui Province and the Huangshan Municipal Government. As an ecological theme conference, how to make the conference itself more "eco-friendly"? Organizers and contractors have made a "combination move" to explore the first "zero carbon" conference in the province and lead the new trend of "green activities".
Carbon reduction office meeting, green new fashion
On November 4th, Huangshan City welcomed delegates to the Xin ‘anjiang Green Development Forum. Before the registration desk in the residence lobby, the delegates receive the meeting materials and certificates. However, the meeting materials such as the forum agenda and guide are not printed on a piece of paper, but are "hidden" in the QR code on the ID page, which can be obtained by scanning the code on the mobile phone. At the front desk of the check-in, the attendant, while handling the check-in formalities for the delegates, reminds the guests that the rooms do not provide disposable toiletries voluntarily, and towels and bedding should not be changed unless necessary.
On the morning of November 5th, before the meeting started, the delegates signed in on the electronic screen outside the venue in an orderly manner. There are signature strips on the mineral water bottles placed in the venue, so you can write down the name of the drinker, or mark them directly with your nails, so as to take away the inexhaustible mineral water.
"This forum adopts electronic forms such as paperless sign-in, paperless signing, and paperless forum manual." Tang Hao, the person in charge of the conference organizer, said that in order to save energy and reduce emissions, recycled materials and recyclable materials were used for the necessary paper materials such as meal vouchers and attendance cards, and recycling was encouraged to reduce paper waste and promote the recycling of resources. Participants pick up and drop off vehicles to use electric new energy vehicles, and encourage delegates to ride in bike-sharing or choose public transportation.
Scenes of energy saving and emission reduction are just to hold a "zero carbon" meeting. But these measures alone are not enough to "zero carbon".
Chen Liqing, secretary-general of Huangshan Municipal Government, said that the "zero carbon" meeting refers to the carbon reduction quota that the total amount of greenhouse gas emissions directly or indirectly generated by the meeting meets the international standards, so as to offset the carbon dioxide emissions generated by the meeting by purchasing carbon credits, afforestation, energy conservation and emission reduction, and achieve carbon neutrality. Therefore, scientific carbon accounting is the primary task to achieve the goal of "zero carbon" conference.
Therefore, the preparatory group of the conference entrusted Professor Cai Yongli, a well-known domestic ecological expert and the School of Design of Shanghai Jiaotong University, and his team to make a systematic and detailed estimation of the carbon emission measurement of the conference according to the requirements of the Implementation Guide for Carbon Neutralization of Large-scale Activities (Trial) issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. It is estimated that the conference will produce 555.22 tons of carbon emissions. Among them, the carbon emission of the meeting place was 94.72 tons, that of transportation was 133.14 tons, that of accommodation was 160.42 tons, and that of catering was 166.94 tons.
After the calculation of carbon emissions at the meeting, there will be a basis and basis for purchasing carbon sinks and realizing "zero carbon".
On November 1st, at the Jiangnan Forestry Property Rights Exchange in Huangshan City, the organizer of the conference won 555.22 tons of forestry carbon sinks developed by Shexian and Shexi State-owned Forest Farm at the price of one ton of 50 yuan, and signed a contract to offset the carbon dioxide emissions generated by the conference, thus truly achieving the goal of "zero carbon" conference.
This transaction "comes with" multiple "auras", which is the first forestry carbon sink project in our province to be publicly traded online through the exchange, and also marks the realization of the first "zero carbon" meeting in our province.
Measure emissions, carbon sink to neutralize
The meeting achieved "zero carbon", and carbon accounting and forestry carbon sink are two key elements. How is the carbon emission of the conference measured? How is the forestry carbon sink formed?
Cai Yongli, a professor at the School of Design of Shanghai Jiaotong University, said that the professional team divided the calculation of carbon emissions into four parts according to the meeting venue arrangement, activity agenda and personnel invitation: direct and indirect traffic carbon emissions generated by the meeting, carbon emissions from the meeting venue, conference and reception services, carbon emissions from the accommodation of participants and carbon emissions from catering involved in the meeting.
In the process of calculating the carbon emissions involved in each part, the total amount of materials and energy consumption involved, such as electricity consumption, water consumption, various materials, food, etc., will be calculated according to the venue and duration of the conference activities and the number of participants, and then calculated and summarized with reference to the international and China’s common carbon emission standards.
According to this calculation, the carbon emission of the meeting place is 94.72 tons, and its sources mainly include the power consumption of various equipment used in the meeting place, the water used in the bathroom and the garbage generated by individuals. The professional team collects relevant data from all parties, such as the hourly power consumption of lighting, air conditioning power and LED screen. The carbon emission factors of electricity and water are summarized according to the data of official website, the unit carbon emission of garbage is obtained by the carbon emission calculator, and the rest data are calculated according to the average level, and then the carbon emission of the venue is calculated according to the calculation formula.
The carbon emissions of the conference have been calculated, how to offset them? Buying forestry carbon sinks is one of the ways.
"Forest is the largest carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystem. Forest plants absorb carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and fix it in vegetation or soil, thus reducing the concentration of the gas in the atmosphere. The amount of carbon sinks that forestry projects participate in carbon market transactions is an additional amount of carbon storage compared with not implementing the project by promoting growth through new afforestation or operating existing forests. " Yu Ben Fu, director of the Ecological Protection and Restoration Department of the Provincial Forestry Bureau, said.
In the first online forestry carbon sink transaction of Jiangnan Forest Exchange, 555.22 tons of forestry carbon sinks developed by Shexian and Weixi State-owned Forest Farm were sold.
Shexian and Suixi State-owned Forest Farm is the first pilot unit of forestry carbon sequestration project development in Huangshan City. Xuan Siping, director of Huangshan Forestry Bureau, said that in order to actively explore the value realization mechanism of forestry eco-products, this project hired a professional company in Shanghai this year to develop according to the methodology of carbon sequestration afforestation project of National Greenhouse Gas Voluntary Emission Reduction Project (CCER).
CCER is a carbon offset mechanism, which allows units to purchase project-level emission reduction credits to offset emissions. The working team conducted a sample survey and carbon sequestration calculation on 24 sub-classes and 2931 mu of forest land that were afforested from 2006 to 2014, and issued a monitoring report on the carbon sequestration of the project. In October, a third-party organization conducted an on-site audit of the project and issued a carbon sink verification report, which verified that the carbon sink was 15,058 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. The certified emission reduction was then put on record and issued by Huangshan City Ecological Environment Bureau.
Located in the Jiangnan Forest Exchange in Tunxi District of Huangshan City, forestry carbon sink trading is one of its businesses. Listing and bidding, on the green eco-product trading platform of the institute, this pioneering online trading of forestry carbon sinks was achieved.
Explore new paths and help "peak carbon dioxide emissions"
Achieving carbon neutrality in peak carbon dioxide emissions is a broad and profound systematic economic and social change. The report of the 11th Party Congress of Fujian Province proposes to build an all-round green transition zone with important influence on economic and social development, and promote carbon neutrality in peak carbon dioxide emissions at a higher level.
Xin ‘anjiang River Basin is the first exploration place for the construction of ecological compensation mechanism in China. Chen Liqing said that holding the "zero carbon" conference is a useful exploration to promote the realization of the value of ecological products and promote carbon neutrality in peak carbon dioxide emissions at a higher level. Focusing on the goal of "double carbon", Huangshan City will constantly sum up the experience of pilot reform, establish and improve the carbon sink trading system, lay a pilot foundation for the mechanism of declaring the value of ecological products, accelerate the construction of Xin ‘anjiang-Qiandao Lake ecological compensation experimental zone, and strive to explore new ways for the construction of system of ecological civilization in China.
"Forestry carbon sink trading transforms the ecological value of forestry into economic value through market mechanism, which is a process of realizing the economic value of ecological products and a path of transforming green mountains into Jinshan Yinshan." Yu Ben Fu said that the trading of forestry carbon sinks in Suixi Forest Farm is an active exploration. The carbon sink function of forest ecosystem also plays an important role in the "double carbon" work.
Zhang Hui, an expert in resources and environment research at Anhui University, said that adopting the concept of "carbon neutrality" in the form of "zero carbon" at this meeting will not only help to form a good demonstration effect in the whole society, but also help to show the development potential of ecological products in southern Anhui, which is more conducive to promoting our province to realize the goal of "double carbon" by using market mechanisms. Achieving the goal of "double carbon" is a national strategy, which has both challenges and opportunities. Our province can seize the opportunity, actively lay out, give full play to the endowment of ecological resources, rationally use the system and mechanism of carbon trading market, and help build a comprehensive green transformation zone with important influence on economic and social development.
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