Low-carbon lifestyles popular in China

The Chinese government has decreed that by 2020 the country will reduce its per unit GDP carbon dioxide emissions by 40 to 45 percent from 2005 levels. A low-carbon lifestyle is quickly becoming a mass trend in this fast-developing nation.

Zuo Junyi is a white-collar professional in Beijing. She has been living a low-carbon lifestyle for over a year.

Now, she is in the habit of calculating her carbon emissions every day. In order to reduce more emissions, Zuo invented her own ways.

Beijing resident Zuo Junyi said, "It's cold outside. So I put vegetables and fruits on the balcony as a way to cut emissions."

Like Zuo Junyi, Chinese in all walks of life have become used to low-carbon lifestyles.

In Shanghai, for example, there is a "Green Hotel." Transformed from an old post office, the hotel's material all came from its former building.

At the reception desk, a computer can calculate carbon emissions during each guest's journey. It then turns the amount of emissions into the quantity of trees needed to offset them. After paying a given sum to the hotel, trees will be plant in north China's Inner Mongolia in the near future.

The city of Baoding, in Hebei Province, is now turning into a solar city. The electricity supply of every traffic light in the city comes from solar energy. The same method is also used for the lamps along the roads. Solar panels have even been installed outside some residents' apartments.

Within the past three years, nearly 2 billion yuan have been invested in the city. More than 16,000 tons of carbon emissions have been eliminated.

As the threat of climate change becomes more apparent, the Chinese people are rethinking their lifestyles and making responsible choices to build China into a low-carbon society.