As you gaze out over the Huangpu River from its eastern bank, you see a skyline that epitomises Chinese prosperity and modernity \u2013 the Oriental Pearl Tower and the skyscrapers that surround it.<\/p>\n
As would be expected from China\u2019s largest and one of its\u00a0most prosperous cities, Shanghai is\u00a0at the vanguard of the country\u2019s efforts to switch to lower-carbon technologies.<\/p>\n
These, typically, range from green buildings and services that use less water, materials and energy, the promotion of recycling and reduction of wasteful consumption, and greater use of greener transport, such as electric vehicles, mass transit and cycle lanes.<\/p>\n
Technologies such as green buildings could play a major role in helping the city reduce the rate of increase in CO2 emissions in households and offices. But the city\u2019s rate of growth (since the start of the century its population has grown 50% to 24 million) will mean that greener urban planning, on its own, would only slow emissions growth, not reverse it.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s because behind Shanghai\u2019s gleaming veneer\u00a0of a service-based, high tech economy, lies a sprawling industrial base that accounts for 40% of the city\u2019s economic output and around 60% of its CO2 emissions.<\/p>\n