This paper expounds the concepts of low-carbon economy and low-carbon life and the relationship between them. "Low-carbon economy" is a new concept put forward by the international community to cope with the catastrophic global climate change caused by the massive consumption of fossil energy and the massive emission of carbon dioxide. It not only means that the manufacturing industry should speed up the elimination of backward production capacity with high energy consumption and high pollution, but also means guiding the public to reflect on those bad hobbies that waste energy and increase pollution. So as to fully tap the huge potential of energy conservation and emission reduction in the fields of consumption and life. It is pointed out that "low-carbon economy" is not supported by advanced technology. We must rely on "low carbon" to achieve the purpose of emission reduction. "Low-carbon life" is a simple, simple, frugal and sustainable lifestyle. To realize a "low-carbon life", publicity, guidance and institutional guarantee are indispensable.

Paper Keywords: environmental science; Low carbon economy; Low-carbon life; Sustainable consumption

The Concept of Low-carbon Economy and Its Formation Background

On June 5th, 2008, the theme of "World Environment Day" was: "Changing traditional ideas and promoting low-carbon economy". "Low-carbon economy" is a new concept put forward by the international community in recent years to cope with the catastrophic global climate change caused by the massive consumption of fossil energy and the massive emission of carbon dioxide. Its core is based on the market mechanism, through the formulation and innovation of institutional framework and policy measures. Form clear, stable and long-term guidance and encouragement, promote the development and application of energy-efficient technologies, energy-saving technologies, renewable energy technologies and greenhouse gas emission reduction technologies, and promote the transformation of the whole social economy into an energy-efficient, low-energy and low-carbon emission model.

2 1 century, the global oil and gas resources are becoming increasingly tight, and the pressure to ensure energy security is gradually increasing. The bottleneck of global environmental capacity is prominent. At the same time, climate change has become the biggest "market failure" problem in human history. In this context. Britain took the lead in putting forward the concept of "low-carbon economy" and promulgated the White Paper on Energy in 2003. At present, developed countries in Europe and America are vigorously promoting the "low-carbon revolution" with high energy efficiency and low emissions as the core, and making efforts to develop "low-carbon technologies". And made major adjustments to policies such as industry, energy, technology and trade. In order to seize the opportunity and the commanding heights of the industry. Japan has become a deep-water bomb to promote a "low-carbon economy". Every year, huge investment is devoted to the development of "low-carbon technology": the US Senate put forward the "Low-carbon Economy Act" in 2007, and the US government formulated a low-carbon technology development plan. All these have brought pressure and challenges to our country.

China is in the stage of accelerated development of industrialization, urbanization and modernization. The scale of infrastructure construction is huge. Energy demand is increasing rapidly. The prominent feature of "high-carbon economy" has become the main restricting factor of China's sustainable development. How to find ways to ensure rapid economic and social development? We must face the task of not repeating the old road of western developed countries seeking development at the expense of the environment and not blindly letting western countries lead by the nose.

Low-carbon economy from a technical point of view

Ensuring energy security and coping with climate change are undoubtedly the two most important goals for a "low-carbon economy".

"Low-carbon economy" advocated by Britain. It is to formulate and implement energy efficiency standards and related policies and measures for products and services in the fields of industrial production, construction and transportation, and promote the diversification of energy forms, sources and transportation channels through a series of institutional frameworks and incentive mechanisms.

Especially the development and utilization of clean energy such as alternative energy and renewable energy, to achieve the goal of low energy consumption and low carbon emission. Finally, the goal of supporting sustainable economic and social development with less energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions will be realized.

2. 1 Uncertainty of CO2 emission from new energy sources

From the perspective of technological innovation, the ideal form of "low-carbon economy" is to fully develop solar photovoltaic power generation, wind power generation, hydrogen energy and biomass energy technologies. Generally, solar photovoltaic power generation, wind power generation and hydrogen energy are called new energy or alternative energy, and biomass energy is a renewable energy among alternative energy sources.

Although wind power generation has developed rapidly in recent years. There has been a breakthrough in technology to a certain extent, but its cost is still higher than that of coal-fired power and hydropower.

In addition, because wind power does not emit carbon dioxide during power generation. The thermal power generation process emits a lot of carbon dioxide. Therefore, people think that wind power does not emit carbon dioxide. This is actually a misunderstanding! Compared with thermal power generation, wind power generation hardly emits carbon dioxide during power generation. However, in the process of manufacturing wind power generation equipment and its maintenance, carbon dioxide must be emitted. We should not only compare the carbon dioxide emissions during power generation, but also compare the carbon dioxide emissions per unit of power generation between thermal power generation and wind power generation. In this way, it is not very scientific to think that wind power generation and electric vehicles will not pollute the environment and emit carbon dioxide.

At present, the cost of solar power generation is 5 ~ 10 times that of coal-fired power and hydropower. As a secondary energy source, hydrogen energy is still far from the commercialization goal. The technology is still very immature.

It should be realized. On the one hand, because the technology is not up to standard, the cost of new energy development is high; On the other hand. Due to the uncertainty of carbon dioxide emissions from new energy sources. Before calculating the carbon dioxide emissions in the whole process, it cannot be said that the new energy is low carbon dioxide emissions.

2.2 Consequences of implementing grain biomass fuel

Bioenergy is renewable energy. Developing biomass energy technology seems to kill two birds with one stone. It not only solves the problem of substitution and shortage of fossil energy, but also improves the environment. However, judging from the current implementation results, it seems that more problems have been brought than solved.

After the introduction of the new policy of developing biomass energy in the United States, American farmers expanded the planting area of corn. Or the land where other crops are planted will also be planted with corn. According to statistics, in 2007, the planting area and yield of corn in the United States reached the highest record since 1944, and as much as 1/5 of the corn produced was used to produce ethanol gasoline. Such strong demand has undoubtedly led to the rise of corn prices. Only in 2007. The price of corn in the United States has increased by 50%. In addition, the planting space is occupied by corn. The supply of soybeans has decreased. Prices have also started to rise. Therefore, Bush's new energy policy has attracted many people's criticism.

Joan Ziegler, an expert from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, warned. The practice of turning grain into fuel in some countries is a kind of "crime against humanity".

This practice will aggravate the global food shortage. The rise in food prices is beyond the reach of more poor people. The policy of converting food crops into biofuels will undoubtedly worsen the growing global food shortage, and will certainly cause greater famine in the world.

In China, the prices of pork and edible oil soared in 2007. A very important reason is the rising feed prices, and the soaring food prices are not only affecting China. American energy policy has such a great influence on global food prices. It can be said that the implementation of the biofuel policy in the United States has objectively formed a food contest between the 800 million car owners and the 2 billion poorest people in the world. Ironically, the plan to develop biomass energy has not brought any relief to the shortage of fossil energy, but has intertwined the old and new problems and brought more troubles to mankind.

However, this does not mean that technological innovation and the development of new energy are not important to the "low-carbon economy". Instead, we should advocate "low-carbon economy" and "low-carbon life", or "low-carbon life" should be an important part of "low-carbon economy".

Low-carbon economy depends on low-carbon life

One of the important meanings of "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, but also means guiding the public to reflect on those bad hobbies that waste energy and increase pollution. So as to fully tap the huge potential of energy conservation and emission reduction in the fields of consumption and life.

Under the system and concept of market economy, the production in the state of "low-carbon economy" with high energy efficiency and low energy consumption is still pursuing profit maximization. Therefore, mass production is inevitable, and the products produced must be sold in the end, and the more you sell, the better. However, large-scale production will inevitably produce a lot of pollution and carbon emissions. Although the unit energy consumption is reduced. However, due to mass production, the total energy consumption has greatly increased. Carbon dioxide emissions will not decrease much, but may increase. For example, through decades of efforts, the fuel consumption of cars driving 100km has decreased by about 50%, but the total number of cars has increased by dozens of times. Obviously, pollution and carbon dioxide emissions have also increased many times.

So ... Advanced technical support is not enough for "low-carbon economy". We must rely on "low-carbon life" to achieve the real purpose of energy saving and emission reduction.

3. 1 "Low-carbon life" is a sustainable lifestyle.

"Low-carbon life" is a simple, simple and frugal lifestyle. People's food, clothing, housing and transportation are all related to carbon dioxide emissions and even climate change. For example, the energy content of an A4 piece of paper is close to 0.1kW h h electricity, from which its carbon dioxide emission can be calculated.

If the vast majority of people can live a life of moderate consumption with low carbon emissions. Then the realization of "low-carbon economy" is possible. What kind of lifestyle there is, what kind of economy there is.

"Low-carbon life" includes not only the details of many energy-saving technical improvements such as manufacturing and construction, but also many energy-saving details in people's daily life habits. For China, the most populous country in the world, it seems that everyone wastes relatively little energy and carbon dioxide emissions in his life. And it has been calculated by many population multipliers. Is a huge number.

Nowadays in many developed countries. Many people have consciously accepted the low-carbon lifestyle that supports the low-carbon economy, and are willing to give up enjoyment and start from the dribs and drabs of life. From turning off the heating to giving up driving to work. Nowadays, Europeans like to travel by train more and more. One of the main reasons is that the per capita carbon emissions brought by high-speed trains are only110 of airplanes.

Simple life is becoming the norm of family life for more people in China. Some citizens whose income has entered the middle class will also wear old clothes to buy cheap vegetables in the morning market. Travel by bike. Use the oldest mobile phone. The habit of boiling eggs one minute earlier, turning off the gas, flushing the toilet with washing water, turning off the lights and printing on double-sided paper has already penetrated into the most educated class, thus bringing peace of mind.

However, few people can consciously accept the guidance of sustainable consumption values and achieve moderate consumption. Pursuing high consumption is still the main theme of social life. In most cases, low-carbon economy is just a concept in people's minds. Low-carbon life is only in the embarrassing stage of an armchair strategist.

In real life, the proportion of "face consumption" and "luxury consumption" at the expense of consuming a lot of energy and emitting a lot of greenhouse gases is too high. On the one hand, we are striving to achieve a "low-carbon economy", on the other hand, we are constantly squandering. These are all caused by consumerism culture.

Consumerism culture always stimulates you to change the latest mobile phone, TV, clothes and shoes: bombing commercial advertisements incite the public to spend more and more, turning people into tools for commercial profit. Many young people who just joined the work soon bought a new mobile phone or a brand-name handbag with one month's income without blinking. At present, nearly 70 million mobile phones are eliminated every year in China, resulting in a large amount of e-waste. Many young women's homes are full of shoes and wallets of various styles. But I still have to buy newer styles. Today, when "low-carbon life" is advocated, the slogan of "earning and spending" no longer symbolizes the concept of modernization. It symbolizes a barbaric consumption pattern that wastes resources.

The lifestyle of mass production, mass consumption and mass abandonment is moving towards the opposite side of human civilization, which seriously restricts the implementation of the sustainable development strategy. It not only pollutes the ecological environment, but also pollutes people's minds. It is this infinite expansion of consumption desire that causes the shortage of energy and resources in the world.

3.2 "Low-carbon life" should be guaranteed by the system.

June 2008 13. Hubei Province publicized the energy audit results of some provincial office buildings for the first time. The average electricity consumption of office buildings in 20 provincial organs, such as the Provincial Construction Department, the Communications Department and the National Development and Reform Commission, is 80kW·h per square meter per year, which is 3-4 times that of ordinary houses. Prior to this, the General Office of the State Council and the Hubei Provincial Government issued a notice on energy conservation and consumption reduction, and put forward some specific requirements.

The fundamental reason why the regulations of government departments can't achieve obvious results. Civil servants' energy saving is purely the embodiment of personal morality and understanding. Even if there are some specific requirements, they are only flexible, and there is no rigid institutional constraint to urge people to save energy. If the government's requirements for energy conservation are guaranteed by the system, civil servants who fail to save energy will be punished by the organization, economy and administration, which will greatly promote the effective implementation of energy conservation measures at the government level.

On June 6, 2008 16, Jiefang Daily reported that Shanghai has specified office energy-saving measures, such as "wearing cool clothes for work in summer". In addition to etiquette, you can't wear two dresses and ties outside, you can't take the elevator below the fourth floor of the office building, you have to carpool on business trips, you have to take the bus, and so on. Office energy-saving measures are being concretized and implemented among civil servants first. This should be regarded as institutionalization in the general direction. If these systems are supplemented by disciplinary measures, they will be more realistic and easier to operate.

The publicity and education on environment and sustainable development has been carried out for many years, and the public's awareness of environmental protection has been improved to a certain extent. In addition to moral education guidance, there must be institutional constraints. Before June 2008 1, many people doubted the operability of the "plastic restriction order", but after its promulgation, it was understood by the general public and achieved practical results.

In short, the widespread implementation of "low carbon life" will curb the spread of "high carbon economy" and promote the development of "low carbon economy". Achieve the goal of "low carbon economy". The propaganda, guidance and system guarantee of "low-carbon life" are indispensable.