Chongqing- On June 2, Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality reported that its air quality has continued to improve since 2017, and the beautiful blue sky was constantly presented over the city.

According to the Chongqing Ecology and Environment Bureau, the number of days with good air quality in 2021 has reached a record high of 146. The Chongqing carbon market has made many attempts to accelerate the promotion of green and low-carbon development.

Ecological protection

"The number of days with good air quality in 2021 has increased by 23 days compared with that of 2017, of which 146 days be rated as good, reaching a record high; the good water quality rate of 74 sections up to 98.6%, 1.3 percentage points higher than the national assessment target," said an official from the Chongqing Ecology and Environment Bureau.

The water quality of the Chongqing section of the Yangtze River is ideal, and the water quality of the 20 monitoring sections is class II. The water quality of 65 urban centralized drinking water sources reached 100%.

Regarding the atmospheric environment, the number of days above moderate air quality was 326, none of which had severe pollution. Meanwhile, the concentration of six significant pollutants all reached the second-class national environmental air quality standard.

The city has treated 9.07 million tons of household waste and achieved daily cleaning. The benign treatment rate of urban household waste is 100%.

Chongqing's natural ecological protection is also under good management. There are 58 nature reserves in Chongqing, covering 804,000 hectares, accounting for 9.8% of the city's total area. There are 36 scenic spots, three world natural heritage sites, 85 forest parks, and 26 wetland parks, with 112 species of terrestrial wild animals under state key protection and over 6,000 species of wild vascular plants.

Carbon market achievements

Besides, as the only pilot province of the carbon market in western China, Chongqing officially launched its carbon market operation in June 2014. By the end of April 2022, the cumulative trading volume of the carbon emission quota in Chongqing's local carbon market was 33.63 million tons, with a transaction value of 692 million yuan (about 103.7 million U.S. dollars).

The Chongqing carbon market has made many attempts. For example, to expand the scope of carbon market industry coverage and the scope of participants, exploring financial services and inclusive carbon activities. Those pilot measures can be applied to the national carbon market as well.

To cope with climate change and accelerate the promotion of green and low-carbon development, Chongqing has built a platform "Tanhuitong", the first ecological product value realization platform in China. Chongqing has also established China's first regional climate investment and financing industry promotion center. It is also China's first city to incorporate carbon emission management into environmental assessment and emission permits and compile greenhouse gas emission inventory.