China should do more to control carbon emissions in its rapidly expanding cities, a World Bank report said Thursday.

Shanghai's emission levels are among the highest of China's urban areas. [File photo]

The report, titled Sustainable Low-Carbon City Development in China, said cities contribute an estimated 70 percent of energy-related greenhouse gases, with China set to add an estimated 350 million residents to its cities over the next 20 years, the case for urgent action is strong.

Greenhouse gas emissions (measured in tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per capita) in China's Tianjin, Shanghai and Beijing far exceed those of cities such as Paris, Tokyo, London, Barcelona and Jakarta.

According to the report, industry and power generation are major contributors to the carbon footprint of Chinese cities, producing in some cities an estimated 40 percent of city emissions each, with the remaining 20 percent contributed by transport, buildings, and waste.

"For China to achieve its 12th Five-Year Plan target to reduce 17 percent carbon intensity, addressing cities' emissions is crucial," said Klaus Rohland, World Bank's Country Director for China. "The report provides a framework for actions that Chinese cities could and are already taking to promote both economic development and low-carbon growth."

The report said China's cities can help reach the country's targets for reducing the energy and carbon intensity of its economy by embarking on a low-carbon growth path.

"Cities must act on multiple fronts to achieve low-carbon growth and also incorporate responses to climate change in planning, investment decisions and emergency-preparedness plans," said the report.

A critical issue for China's leaders to consider is the spatial growth of Chinese cities and links with municipal finance, as spatial growth patterns determine long-term carbon use in a city.

Sprawling cities are locked into a high-carbon development path.

"The complex challenges facing China's cities require a comprehensive approach, with coordinated action from different levels of government as well as civil society," said Axel Baeumler, World Bank Senior Infrastructure Economist and a co-editor of the report.

The report recommends that urban leaders encourage a cleaner supply of energy, enhance market-based methods of energy demand management (including prices that reflect full costs), enforce energy-efficient building codes and switch to consumption-based billing for district heating.

It also suggests optimizing the transport system to provide alternatives to automobiles and encourage walking and bicycling.

China aims to reduce its energy intensity (a measure of how much energy is used to produce a unit of GDP) by 16 percent by 2015 - the last year of the current five-year plan - and cut its carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 17 percent in the same year.

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