United Nations,: The ‘Ant Forest’ mini-program, a Hangzhou-based project from giant Chinese payments and lifestyle app Alipay, incites users to make environmentally friendly decisions in their daily lives, such as cycling rather than driving to work, or recycling clothes.
China was once considered to be the “Kingdom of the Bicycle,” with bikes dominating city streets across the country, but over the past four decades, China’s dramatic economic prosperity and urbanisation has seen many people move to motor vehicles as their primary means of transport, contributing to a marked deterioration in air quality.
In Hangzhou, a city in eastern China that was once described by the Italian explorer Marco Polo as “the finest and most splendid city in the world,” air pollution has had a devastating effect.
In a bid to improve public health and the environment, the Hangzhou authorities have put a fresh emphasis on cycling, which, allied with digital technology, is helping to cut pollution.
As well as leading the Chinese cycling resurgence, Hangzhou is home to an innovative way to encourage more sustainable lifestyles, with an app that is helping to stop desertification, cut air pollution and plant millions of new trees.
“Each time I perform any carbon-reducing activities, I am rewarded with “green energy” points,” says Annie Hao, an associate at Ant Financial, the parent company of Alipay. “As I accumulate enough virtual points, a real tree is planted.”
According to Ms Hao, more than 13 million trees have been planted, thanks to the actions of the app’s 300 million users.
Internationally, one of the best-known examples of harmful air pollution affecting quality of life in a city, is the Chinese capital, Beijing.
Beijing’s remarkable development over the last two decades saw a significant, and visible, rise in air pollution, due to a combination of factors, including coal-related pollutants; the growth of motor transport, especially logistics freight trucks; heavy industry; and dust from buildings and roads, according to a one of the main authors of a UN led report, A review of 20 Years’ Air Pollution Control in Beijing.
By working together on a strategy to tackle the problem, by using the legal, economic and technological tools at its disposal, the concentration of fine particles in the air fell by one third, beating the target set by the State Council, China’s main administrative body.
“Beijing has achieved impressive air quality improvements in a short amount of time,” said Dechen Tsering, Director of UN Environment’s Asia Pacific Regional Office. “It is a good example of how a large city in a developing country can balance environmental protection and economic growth,” she stressed.
China is hosting the 2019 UN World Environment Day on June 5, with air pollution as the theme, The main events marking the day, will take place in Hangzhou.
UNI.
