Zero-carbon parks, zero-carbon hosting meetings, zero-carbon weddings, and even zero-carbon drinks and sports shoes … In recent years, related words have frequently appeared in newspapers and websites, which deserves attention.
What is "zero carbon"? This can be seen from the home activities of the first National Eco-Day held by the "Zero Carbon" Expo. According to reports, "zero-carbon" hosting the conference refers to the implementation of carbon emission reduction measures, carbon emission budget, carbon emission intervention, carbon emission accounting and evaluation, carbon neutral evaluation, carbon neutral subject matter trading and offset, so as to ensure the carbon neutrality of the conference. In other words, while doing our best to hold the meeting in a low-carbon, green and waste-free manner, we will realize positive and negative offset by purchasing inclusive emission reduction and carbon sink emission reduction, and achieve relative "zero emission".
Since China clearly put forward the goal of "double carbon" in September 2020, the research on "zero carbon" has heated up rapidly, and the number of papers has risen sharply. However, there is no exact definition of "zero carbon" at present, because it involves many aspects, such as accounting scope, accounting emission types, reference index units, target year, whether to adopt compensation and offset measures, and so on. What is certain is that "zero carbon" does not mean that carbon dioxide is not emitted at all, and it is closer to the concepts of "low carbon" and "carbon neutrality" in real life and media reports.
Although there is no lack of controversy, behind the popularity of "zero carbon", there are conceptual changes and practical explorations, not "playing gimmicks" and "pushing concepts". According to industry insiders, there are four processes to achieve "zero carbon", accounting, emission reduction, offset and certification, and each link is actually not simple. Take the 3rd Digital China Construction Summit with available data as an example. While implementing a series of carbon emission reduction actions, the organizers calculated the new carbon dioxide emissions according to the number of activities, the number of participants, transportation, catering, accommodation and other conditions, and then realized the "zero emission" of the summit by purchasing carbon sink projects to reduce emissions. The idea of "zero-carbon" wedding, which has become popular among minority groups, is also the same. It can be seen that "zero-carbon" action has actually reduced carbon emissions, whether as a mode of production or a way of life, and it is worth becoming a popular trend.
In some specific scenarios, "zero carbon" can also be understood as zero use of fossil fuels. For example, the construction of "zero-carbon villages" and "zero-carbon post stations" in some areas is to realize the supply of "green electricity" by purchasing photovoltaic and wind power, or rooftop photovoltaic power generation and intelligent energy storage equipment. As a packaging method and concept, although its connotation and extension are slightly different, it can’t avoid the core expression of the concept of green, low-carbon and sustainable development.
Not long ago, the National Eco-environmental Protection Conference proposed that we should correctly handle the relationship between external constraints and endogenous motivation, and "inspire the endogenous motivation of the whole society to jointly care for the ecological environment". From the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Completely, Accurately and Comprehensively Implementing the New Development Concept and Doing a Good Job of Carbon Neutralization in peak carbon dioxide emissions" to the release of the first batch of "Zero-carbon China" evaluation criteria, and the increasing diversity of "zero-carbon" public activities, "zero-carbon" is not only an initiative and a guide, but also has attracted more and more subjects to join in and take action.
From this point of view, the concept of "zero carbon" is not hidden, nor is it out of reach. In the process of publicity and promotion, we may as well open our minds to stimulate the public’s demand for carbon reduction, further stimulate everyone’s enthusiasm and initiative to practice a simple, moderate, green and low-carbon lifestyle, and make "zero carbon" a new trend and fashion. (Lu Yi)