Doria Nan

    there_sun@163.com

    THE 13th International Green Habitat Forum (IGHF) and the 2nd Green Pilot Free Trade Zone Week was held at the Shenzhen Qianhai-Shekou Pilot Free Trade Area (Qianhai FTA) from Thursday to Saturday.

    Hosted by the United Nations Environment Program, China Merchants Group and the Qianhai Authority, and organized by China Merchants Shekou Holdings, the IGHF is an annual international nonprofit conference that has the concepts, practices and development trends of green habitats at its core.

    Themed “Green City Smart Growth,” this year’s forum hoped to explore the future direction and international impetus of city development, while promoting its city construction mode and technological innovation.

    Domestic and overseas experts, scholars, government leaders and enterprise representatives attended this year’s forum.

    In the main forum, Arab Hoballah, the chief of Sustainable Lifestyles, Cities and Industry UNEP/DTIE, emphasized the importance of green living in building a sustainable city. “Sustainable consumption and production is the most efficient strategy to avoid trade-offs and create synergies to resolve developmental and environmental challenges,” said Hoballah.

    Matthew Lynch, vice president of Global Partnership & Initiatives at the World Council on City Data, showed how City Data works in building a smart, sustainable, prosperous and inclusive city. According to Lynch, City Data does an excellent job of building a sustainable city by helping to make a better plan for the city, working on the development of infrastructure and serving as a useful tool for learning from other cities. He said that China is starting to collect data from competitive and smart cities such as Shanghai and Beijing.

    Wei Liu, deputy general manager of China Merchants Shekou Holdings, took Qianhai FTA as an example to talk about the “port-industrial park — new urban district” development pattern. He believes industrial upgrading is the core of this development pattern, as Shekou’s industry is upgrading from port logistics to high-tech industry.

    Qianhai FTA focuses on green development, according to Wang Jinxia, deputy director of the Qianhai Authority. “We expect to boost city growth with green development as the engine,” said Wang. To achieve this goal, the free trade zone plans to build 26-million-sqm to 30-million-sqm green buildings, and plans to develop the green economy here. “We also provide opportunities for residents to improve their lifestyle by popularizing green offices, green driving, garbage classification and so on,” said Wang.

    The free trade zone understands the importance of building a platform for green development. “We will strengthen exchanges and cooperation with other cities,” said Wang.

    The forum consisted of a main forum, 11 sub-forums and a variety of activities. The 11 sub-forums included the “Sponge City Sub-forum,” “Smart City Sub-forum,” “Green Life Sub-forum,” “Building Industrialization Sub-forum,” among others. At the same time, there was a Civil Building Energy Consumption Standard Release Ceremony, Green Building Design Competition Awards, Green Innovation Project visits, and more.