(Yicai Global) July 29 -- Shanghai has revealed a bigger-than-expected target of cutting its carbon dioxide emissions to achieve the national 2030 goal of peaked emissions.

The eastern megacity will decrease its carbon footprint by 70 percent per unit of regional gross domestic product by 2030 from the levels of 2005, the government wrote in an action plan released yesterday. The national requirement is a 65 percent reduction.

The whole country is thinking about how to become greener after President Xi Jinping said in 2020 that China aims to peak its CO2 emissions by 2030 and strives to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.

Shanghai has set a rather high environmental target, reflecting the city’s sense of responsibility, Tang Yiwen, deputy director of the Institute of Economics of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, told Yicai Global. As a city under development, Shanghai will achieve the goal through industrial restructuring, she added.

The economic hub will establish a clean and efficient energy system, according to the plan. That includes solar, wind, and other greener energy sources. The proportion of renewable energy in the city’s electricity consumption will reach 36 percent by 2025.

Shanghai will promote the development of photovoltaic projects to achieve four million kilowatts of installed PV capacity by 2025 and seven million kilowatts by 2030. The city will also speed up the development of wind power projects in coastal areas to reach a capacity of 2.6 million kilowatts by 2025 and five million kilowatts by 2030.

Moreover, the revamped energy mix will include exploring new directions such as biomass, tidal energy, and ocean thermal energy conversion which involves harnessing temperature changes between surface and deep ocean waters.

Besides industrial transformation, Shanghai will focus on green finance. The city aims to guide social resources toward low-carbon developments. Evidently, the municipality strives to further improve the national carbon trading market, which was launched a year earlier, to promote emission cuts across the country.

Shanghai’s action plan fully reflects the functional feature of an international metropolis, Tang said. The city can hold international forums and exhibitions, carry out scientific and technological cooperation, and participate in the formulation and mutual recognition of international standards, to play a part in achieving the goal of carbon neutrality, she added.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi