The greenhouse gas mitigation of industrial parks in China: A case study of Suzhou Industrial Park

Climate mitigation at the local level plays a highly important role in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions mitigation. This research presents a summary of the local efforts in China’s ecological industrial parks (EIPs) to assess GHG emissions and identify potential mitigation measures. Through field study and interviews in Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), in Jiangsu Province, we conducted an energy-based GHG emissions inventory for SIP area from 2005–2010, with forecasts to 2015. The area emitted a total of 10.30 MMT CO2E in 2010. Three development strategies including business-as-usual (BAU), existing and pending regulations (EPR) and voluntary mitigating efforts (VME) were introduced to estimate the energy-related GHG emissions in 2015. The results projected that emissions will increase to 17.16 Mt in 2015 with no change in policy or practice, but 3.42 Mt of emissions are avoidable with full compliance with national and provincial energy policies (1.41 Mt), as well as local efforts (2.01 Mt). This study furthers the understanding of the potential effectiveness of carbon reduction strategies of industrial parks in China, including the development industrial symbiosis (IS) and on-site renewable energy projects.