UK company collaborates on low-carbon planning guidance

China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and Atkins, a leading city planning and project design consulting company from the United Kingdom, released an overview of the Eco-Low Carbon Urban Planning Guidance for China on March 29.

The China Society for Urban Studies, and the UK's Foreign and Commonwealth Office also joined the program.

The guidance, which is funded by the UK office's Prosperity Fund and led by Atkins in cooperation with the society, was released at the 10th International Conference on Green and Energy-Efficient Building & New Technologies and Products Expo in Beijing — China's biggest annual event in the green building industry.

Mark Hewlett, Atkins' project manager, said, "The guidance will provide a clear, practical methodology for ELC urban planning based on international best practice tailored for Chinese urban planners."

Hewlett said the guidance involves working with both national government agencies and city governments and is aimed at providing a key, high profile reference point for low-carbon urban planning for China.

It brought together Chinese and British experts in a project team to develop low-carbon policies, practices and regulations, with a growing focus on sustainable urbanization, he said at the UK-China Green seminar during the conference.

Supported by the ministry, which has responsibility for green building and urban planning administration, the project team worked closely with the cities of Changsha and Zhuzhou in Hunan province to test and refine the ELC guidance.

China's emerging ELC urbanization initiative forms a key component of the government's 12th Five Year Plan (2011-15), which places strong emphasis on energy and resource efficiency, reducing emissions and environmental protection.

However, there is currently little guidance for urban planners, in terms of practical approaches and methods, on how to achieve ELC goals in China. This project is aimed at addressing that lack.

The full guidance will be made available to the public in April 2014.

Joanna Key, urbanization director at the British Embassy Beijing, said "The UK-China Green seminar at the conference provided an ideal opportunity for UK companies to showcase their strength and expertise in the eco-cities and green building related field."