Shanghai charts green transition with ambitious 2030 goals

Shanghai officially released on Thursday its ecological development goals for the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) period, setting out 18 indicators across four categories of environmental quality, green development, environmental governance, and ecological protection.

Specifically, Shanghai aims to further improve its annual average PM2.5 concentration to around 25 micrograms per cubic meter by 2030, a 4 percent improvement over the level achieved during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, according to the plan unveiled on Thursday.

Shanghai will also advance its "zero-waste" initiative citywide, introducing a "zero-waste index". Efforts will be accelerated to improve recycling systems for electronic waste, decommissioned wind turbine blades and solar panels, as well as retired power batteries.

This will facilitate the high-quality development of emerging industries, Shi Chun, chief engineer of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, said during a Thursday news conference.

To tackle noise pollution, the plan sets a target for nighttime noise compliance in designated zones, aiming for a rate above 90 percent.

Urban passenger transport will be a major area for the city's green transition. Maintaining its commitment to prioritizing public transit and slow traffic, Shanghai will keep green travel above 75 percent in the central city.

For transport and logistics, the city will improve multimodal transport and express delivery systems, optimize the transport mix, and pursue green, low-carbon operations, Zhang Xin, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Transportation Commission, said.

By 2030, the proportion of containers transferred via water-to-water transshipment is expected to rise to 55 percent. Shanghai will also optimize the layout of highway freight corridors, expand the network of charging and battery-swap facilities for heavy trucks, phase out high-polluting diesel trucks, and increase the share of medium- and heavy-duty new energy trucks, the newly released plan said.

Green fuel bunkering and trading will be strengthened. The port of Shanghai is expected to see its bonded liquefied natural gas bunkering capacity reaching the million-cubic-meter level by 2030, when its methanol and biofuel bunkering capacity is projected to reach the million-ton level.

As China's first cross-provincial demonstration zone of its kind, the Yangtze River Delta's ecological green integrated development zone, made up of parts of Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, will advance coordinated environmental impact assessments, carbon emission briefings, and direct interconnection of monitoring data in the following five years, Lu Gang, deputy director of the zone's administrative committee, said.

The zone will strengthen cross-regional coordination while establishing a coordinated mechanism for ecological environment zoning control. Joint efforts will be made to build national-level ecological quality monitoring stations. National-level key laboratories for water pollution control and green resource recycling will be put into use in the next five years.

Focusing on agriculture, culture, tourism, commerce, sports, and exhibitions, the zone will activate its ecological and cultural resources, promote the coordinated revitalization of water town ancient towns, and jointly develop new cultural tourism products and routes. New business formats and events should be promoted, including homestays, recreational vehicle campsites, nature-based therapy and water sports, according to the plan.

shijing@chinadaily.com.cn