City Of Shenzhen, China Wins City Climate Leadership Award

September 23rd, 2014 by James Ayre
 
The Chinese city of Shenzhen was recently awarded the top honors for urban transportation at the C40 City Climate Leadership Awards in New York.

The city â€" located in China’s southern Guangdong province â€" was also a finalist in the finance and economic development category of the awards, but didn’t manage to take the top spot in it, as it had in the urban transportation category.

“It’s the first step for Shenzhen to become a green city,” stated Tang Jie, vice-mayor of Shenzhen. “We welcome all of you to come ride the green bus!”

A recent press release provides some background:

Vice Mayor Tang was responsible for the design and implementation of Shenzhen’s Emissions Trading Scheme, which began in 2010. As part of this scheme, the city reached out to BYD, supporting them in setting the benchmark for a greener more eco-friendly transportation infrastructure based on renewable energy, which can be adopted throughout China and around the globe.

Recognized by Bloomberg Businessweek as one of the world’s top 100 fastest growing tech companies, BYD is often compared to renowned American manufacturer of electric cars, Tesla Motors. As the world’s largest manufacturer of rechargeable batteries, BYD has applied its expertise in renewable energy to the development of top-notch electric vehicles for government and private use. After teaming up with the Shenzhen City Government in 2009, BYD has put over 800 electric buses and 850 electric taxis on the road, massively reducing the city’s carbon footprint in spite of its rapid growth.

With moves like those it’s easy to see why the city ended up winning the urban transportation award.

Image Credit: BYD

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About the Author

James Ayre 's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy. You can follow his work on Google+.