How should people realize a low-carbon lifestyle and further promote the development of low-carbon economy?
Two reports released by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) in World Environment Day this year give an unexpected answer-it may be easier to achieve the goal of "eliminating carbon dependence" than imagined: you just need to adopt a climate-friendly lifestyle, which will not cause much change to your lifestyle, let alone make any big sacrifices!
One of these two reports is called "Getting rid of habits: climate neutrality that cannot be ignored", which is a general guide for low-carbon lifestyles. Another book, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation in the Tourism Sector, was written by experts in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Tourism Organization.
On June 10, China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) jointly released the China Ecological Footprint Report, indicating that it is urgent to promote low-carbon lifestyle and low-carbon economic development in China. According to the report, since 1960s, the per capita ecological footprint of China has continuously increased by about two times. If China wants to reduce the ecological deficit, it can start from two aspects, that is, starting with simple things and giving priority to solving the problem of slow effect.
These continuous reports echoed the theme of World Environment Day this year-"Changing traditional ideas and promoting low-carbon economy" from different angles. On the one hand, it shows that if people can change the traditional high-emission lifestyle, it will play a positive role in promoting the low-carbon economy; On the other hand, it also highlights that under the background of increasing global warming, all countries in the world are trying to reduce their carbon footprint in order to promote the development of low-carbon economy.
China's per capita ecological footprint: tripled in 50 years.
China Ecological Footprint Report was jointly commissioned by China International Cooperation Committee on Environment and Development and World Wide Fund for Nature (China), and completed by Global Ecological Footprint Network and Institute of Geographical Sciences and Resources of Chinese Academy of Sciences.
This report analyzes the ecological deficit in China since the early 1970s, and points out the innovative path for China to achieve the goal of sustainable development, so as to realize its long-term rational utilization of natural resources.
According to the report, China, as a country, consumes15% of the global biological carrying capacity; Despite the increasing biological carrying capacity, the demand of China is still more than twice the sustainable supply capacity of its own ecosystem.
According to the report, the per capita ecological footprint of China is 1.6 hectares worldwide, which means that an ordinary person needs 1.6 hectares of ecologically productive land to meet their lifestyle needs. China's per capita ecological footprint ranks 69th among 147 countries, which is lower than the global average ecological footprint of 2.2 hectares, but it still reflects the important challenges faced by China. In fact, China consumes more than twice as much resources as its ecosystem can provide.
The conclusion of the report shows that if China wants to reduce the ecological deficit, it can start from two aspects, that is, starting with simple things and giving priority to solving the problem of slow effect.
Starting from simple things can produce immediate short-term benefits and promote the development of society towards reducing ecological footprint. In order to completely reduce China's ecological deficit, we need to consider the decisions that may have a long-term impact now.
The report also puts forward "circular" ways to reduce the ecological footprint: reducing urban development (c), personal action (i), reducing the amount of potential waste (r), carbon emission reduction strategy (c), land management (l) and improving energy efficiency (e).
The report also pointed out that compared with other parts of the world, the per capita ecological footprint of the Asia-Pacific region is relatively low. However, the huge population makes the total ecological footprint of this area rank first in the world.
Low-carbon lifestyle: small actions bring big changes
People living in developed countries and some fast-growing cities can "eliminate carbon dependence" immediately-it is not difficult.
Changing Lifestyle: A Guide to Climate Neutrality and the United Nations points out that only a few simple measures can reduce a person's daily greenhouse gas emissions by half. If companies such as power companies, automobile manufacturers and aviation equipment manufacturers also strive to achieve a green economy, then we can reduce more greenhouse gas emissions.
Studies have shown that if each air passenger reduces his luggage to less than 20 kilograms, it is possible to reduce the emission of 2 million tons of carbon dioxide worldwide every year.
Other low-carbon lifestyles that can be adopted at home or while traveling include:
-Encourage airlines to provide free bus or rail mileage instead of free flying mileage, thus promoting passengers to adopt more environmentally friendly means of transport;
Replacing electronic alarm clock with traditional clockwork alarm clock can save 48 grams of carbon dioxide emissions per person per day;
-choose to dry clothes and avoid using drum dryer, which can reduce 2.3 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions every day;
Using jogging in a nearby park instead of 45 minutes of exercise on a treadmill can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 1 kg.
Start your "Low Carbon Day": halve your carbon footprint.
There are many small "no regrets" in Changing Lifestyle: A Guide to Climate and the United Nations, which can help reduce daily greenhouse gas emissions. The users of these methods may come from Australasia, Europe or North America, which are the major regions that have caused global warming in history. By adopting the above method, the per capita emission can be reduced from 38kg to14kg.
These suggestions have little or no impact on people's comfort, and may be partly related to some developing countries, cities, departments and people, because their carbon footprints are rising sharply.
Half of greenhouse gas emissions are caused by human control, such as the way we drive, the way we travel by plane, the energy of houses and the way we warm up.
About half of the remaining 50% beyond personal control comes indirectly from providing energy for our work, more than 65,438+00% comes from the maintenance of infrastructure and government departments, and the remaining 20% comes from the production of commodities.
Changing Lifestyle: Climate Neutrality Guidelines and UN Recommendations on How to Start a "Low Carbon Day". What should you do after you turn off the clockwork and put on the sun-dried clothes, brush your teeth and have breakfast? Please consider the following aspects:
-Choosing a non-electric toothbrush will avoid nearly 48 grams of carbon dioxide emissions;
-Baking bread with toaster instead of oven 15 minutes can reduce carbon dioxide emission by nearly170g;
-Replacing 60-watt bulbs with energy-saving lamps can reduce greenhouse gases by 4 times;
—— Taking trains instead of cars as daily commuting tools can save1.7kg of carbon dioxide emissions in just 8km;
Turn off your computer and flat panel monitor after lunch break and after work, which will reduce the emissions generated by these devices1/3;
-Buying and using water-saving shower heads can not only save 65,438+00 liters of water per minute, but also greatly reduce the carbon dioxide emissions generated by taking a three-minute hot bath to half.
How to Reduce Air Tourism Emissions
Changing Lifestyle: A Guide to Climate Neutrality and the United Nations points out that the carbon emissions caused by transatlantic flights are equivalent to driving a car 1 year.
For people who often fly, whether you are a successful person or an ordinary tourist, flying is the main cause of global warming at present. Compared with railways, short-distance air travel produces about three times of carbon dioxide emissions per passenger, which accounts for about 2% ~ 3% of global greenhouse gas emissions as an industry as a whole.
Long-distance buses may be a good choice for intercity travel, because some new ultra-high-speed railway services will cause considerable carbon emissions. At the same time, technological innovation can help improve the efficiency of transporting people and goods.
The report "How does tourism adapt to and mitigate climate change" puts forward some other methods, so aviation and tourism may contribute to the transition to a low-carbon economy.
In addition to measures such as reducing hand luggage and tax exemption on the plane, experts also put forward other suggestions:
-Encourage tour operators to book direct flights instead of detours or flights that require stopovers;
-Encourage closer cooperation among airlines and increase the passenger load factor to 80%. At present, the average load factor in the EU is 65%.
-Significantly increase the ticket price of business class passengers to truly reflect the extra space they occupy, which can be used to transport more passengers, thus making the aircraft more environmentally friendly;
-Formulate measures to reduce the average age of aircraft in service. In Sweden, the average aircraft age is just over 10 years, while in the United States, the average aircraft age of 1/3 is 25 years. Advanced aircraft can reduce the exhaust emissions per passenger by 30% per kilometer.
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The so-called "low-carbon enterprises clearly understand the direction, consciously follow up, and take collective action to promote the development of low-carbon economy. Only in this way can China have a realistic basis for its transition to a low-carbon economy.
The ideal form of low-carbon economy is to fully develop "sunshine economy", "wind energy economy", "hydrogen energy economy" and "bioenergy economy". But at present, the cost of solar power generation is 5- 10 times that of coal-fired power and hydropower, and the cost of wind power generation is higher than that of coal-fired power and hydropower in most areas. As a secondary energy, hydrogen energy is far from the commercialization goal of extracting clean energy such as wind energy and solar energy. Developing biofuels at the expense of consuming a large number of grain and oil crops has caused the prices of grain, meat and edible oil to rise to some extent. Globally, solar power generation will only reach 65,438+00% of the world's electricity demand by 2030, and the world's proven reserves of oil, natural gas and coal will be exhausted in the next 40 years and 60 years respectively. In the process of transition from "carbon fuel civilization" to "solar energy civilization" (wind energy and biomass energy are both converted energy forms of solar energy) in the next few decades, one of the important meanings of "low poverty economy" and "low poverty life" is to save the consumption of fossil energy and provide time guarantee for the popularization and utilization of new energy. Especially from the energy structure of China, low-carbon economy means energy saving, and it is an economy based on low energy consumption and low pollution.
Low-carbon economy not only means that the manufacturing industry should speed up the elimination of backward production capacity with high energy consumption and high pollution, and promote scientific and technological innovation of energy conservation and emission reduction, but also means that it is guiding the public to reflect on which habitual consumption patterns and lifestyles are bad habits of wasting energy and increasing pollution, so as to fully tap the great potential of energy conservation and emission reduction in the service industry and consumers' lives.
One of the important ways to turn to a low-carbon economy and a low-carbon lifestyle is to quit the convenient consumption hobby at the expense of high energy consumption. Convenience is a universal value in modern business and consumer life. Many convenient consumption methods are inadvertently wasting huge energy. For example, disposable articles we often use, purified water we often drink, and unrestrained use of plastic bags not only create too much garbage, but also produce white pollution and consume too much valuable petroleum energy. According to estimates, reducing shopping bags 10% in China can save energy consumption10.2 million tons of standard coal and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 3 1 10,000 tons.
Turning to a low-cost economy and implementing a low-carbon life, we should also give up the hobbies of "face consumption" and "luxury consumption" at the expense of consuming a lot of energy and emitting a lot of greenhouse gases. For example, while the whole world, including developed countries, advocates the use of small-displacement vehicles to save energy, the fastest growing car market in China in the first quarter of 2008 was luxury cars, among which imported high-gear and large-displacement BMW cars increased by 82% year-on-year. Advocating a low-carbon life does not oppose cars entering the family, but advocates the controlled use of private cars. For example, the penetration rate of private cars in Japan is as high as 80%, but Japanese people do not rely entirely on private cars for travel. In Tokyo, private cars generally travel 3000-5000 kilometers a year, while in Shanghai, private cars generally travel 18000 kilometers a year. People in China use private cars without restraint and tend to show off their consumption. Because people unilaterally understand the modern lifestyle as enjoying the convenience provided by electrification and automation, people rely more and more on high-energy-consuming power systems in their daily lives, often hundreds of meters away, and they have to rely on motor vehicles and elevators to climb several floors. In addition, people's diet is consuming more and more high-calorie foods, such as livestock meat and oil, at the expense of more energy consumption and more greenhouse gases, and the incidence of obesity is increasing. However, many people lose weight and are used to using electric treadmills in power-consuming artificial environments such as air-conditioned gyms, at the cost of consuming more energy and emitting more greenhouse gases. These are contrary to the goal of developing low-carbon economy and advocating low-carbon life, and must be paid enough attention to.
To advocate energy conservation and emission reduction, we should also start from the details and start from the side. This detail is not only the details of many energy-saving technical improvements in manufacturing and construction, but also the details of energy saving in daily life habits. The energy and carbon emissions wasted in everyone's living habits seem small, but multiplied by 654.38+0.3 billion will become a huge amount. We should follow the old adage "Don't do it because of small kindness, don't do it because of small evil", and pay attention to saving every kilowatt hour and every drop of water. Every science and technology worker and social worker should publicize the significance of low-carbon economy and low-carbon life to the public from their daily lives, so that the decision of saving energy and reducing emissions, building a resource-saving and environment-friendly society and strengthening the ability to cope with climate change put forward by the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China can be translated into practical actions of the whole people.