Low-carbon lifestyles call for reducing carbon dioxide emissions, along with cutting energy and resource consumption and avoiding extravagance. These lifestyles have been introduced to China without much fanfare, and many Chinese now enjoy a low-carbon life.

Planting trees online

Recently, Hudong.com has launched an Internet Forest initiative in conjunction with the Climate Group, an international non-profit organization, to promote low-carbon lifestyles via the Internet. If you follow their online tips, you will be able to cut carbon dioxide emissions by 2,406.1 grams, an equivalent of planting 0.13148 trees. To date, Internet users have planted more than 2.86 million trees in the Internet Forest; that is, today, they have slashed carbon dioxide emissions by 530,000 tons. More than 16 million Internet users have taken part in the program, says Guo Ruixue, Vice President of Hudong.com. "It never occurred to me that I could contribute to emissions reduction," said an old man from Chengdu, Sichuan Province, after joining the initiative.

Pan Huiqiang, an advocate of low-carbon lifestyles from Hangzhou, said: "I seldom use the elevator; I go to work by bus or by bike; I print on both sides of the paper; and I use electricity economically. More and more employees in my company are switching to low-carbon lifestyles. In October, the company's electricity fees dropped by more than 1,000 yuan ($143)."

Many Internet users post diaries on living a low-carbon life online while offering tips on emissions reduction and asking others to join them in their endeavor. Their tips include turning off electrical appliances before going out; traveling on foot, by bike or by subway; and using instant messaging tools such as e-mails and MSN to maintain work contacts instead of printers and fax machines.

When it comes to the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions, ordinary people have the power to change the future, said Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program. The shift to low-carbon lifestyles marks progress in our understanding of health, nature and security and low-cost lifestyles help lessen pressure both on ourselves and on the Earth.

Paying for your emissions

Low Carbon, another of China's emissions reduction programs, offers an emissions calculator on its website. Calculations based on lowest ratings show that one person can cause the emission of 0.82 tons of carbon dioxide a year. One ton of carbon dioxide emissions takes up a volume of 556 cubic meters. In comparison, an Olympic size swimming pool measures 2,500 cubic meters. The average per-capita carbon dioxide emissions caused by the Chinese are 2.7 tons a year. If every one reduced his emissions by one ton every year, the 1.3 billion Chinese people would cut a staggering 1.3 billion tons, which would fill more than 200 million Olympic swimming pools.

Moreover, a large number of people in China are paying for their emissions. According to international carbon prices, emitters should pay $10 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions. With this money, others can plant trees for them to offset their emissions. A dedicated forest has been created in Badaling in the northwest of Beijing for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Consumers can purchase carbon sinks or plant trees there to compensate for the emissions they have caused.

When the Internet Forest exceeded 1 million trees, the United Nations Environment Program and the China Green Foundation showed interest in the project, said Guo. The two organizations also started to work with his website in launching the second phase of the project, which is called A Million Trees. The new program encourages Internet users to donate money to the China Green Foundation for tree planting. Donations have totaled 260,000 yuan ($37,000) to date.

Playing an active role

Today, climate change is a pressing concern not only for environmentalists, government officials and experts but also for laypeople as well.

Beijing planned to put into use more than 10 million energy-efficient lamps in 2009. It has also vowed to embrace energy-saving lighting in three years by making 1-yuan ($0.14) energy-saving lamps widely available to its residents. Moreover, it has set clear-cut prices for emissions trading, averaging 1,000 yuan ($143) for 8.6 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, at its carbon sink forest.

Nanchang in Jiangxi Province is one of the 10 pilot cities in China listed to promote energy-saving and new-energy cars. It is undertaking a demonstration project to make 1,000 such vehicles commercially operational in four years. The city has also developed a biogas power generation project. With an annual generation capacity of 21.6 million kw/h, it has the potential to bring in 12.96 million yuan ($1.9 million) a year in economic returns.

Baoding in Hebei Province has distributed booklets to residents offering advice on how to reduce emissions in their daily lives. All these actions ttest to China's moves to take effective actions to tackle climate change according to the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities" as defined in the Kyoto Protocol.