People-centric green projects power Shanxi's low-carbon transition

A field visit to Linfen, Shanxi province, has shown how a resource-based city with a heavy coal and industrial legacy can pursue a low-carbon transition while improving livelihoods, participants of an environmental development meeting said.

The visit preceded the three-day 2026 annual general meeting of the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, which began on Sunday under the theme "Pragmatic and Innovative Cooperation, Advancing Together for Green Development".

Linfen once ranked near the bottom in air quality among China's key monitored cities. Participants visited sites such as the Beiwang village zero-carbon rural community pilot program in Fushan county, Linfen Dadi Huaji Building Materials Co, the Xiangfen County Long-Distance District Heating Exchange Station and Shanxi Jinnan Iron and Steel Group Co, to learn about the city's efforts to reduce coal use, pollution and carbon emissions while building a greener economy.

Grethel Aguilar, director-general of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said she was impressed by not only the scale of the investment and innovation, but also by the multiple benefits delivered by the projects.

"What stood out to me was ... the way these projects are demonstrating that the green transition can deliver multiple benefits at the same time — for the economy, for communities and for the environment," Aguilar said.

She said the visit to Beiwang village was particularly meaningful because it showed how new technologies can provide cleaner alternatives in a region with a strong coal and industrial heritage. Heat pumps, solar panels and energy storage work together as an integrated system, enabling residents to generate and use clean energy to heat and cool their homes, while surplus power can be fed into the grid.

"This is not simply a transition to cleaner energy; it is a model where climate action, economic opportunity and people's quality of life can reinforce one another," Aguilar said. The experience, she added, showed that development and environmental protection do not have to be competing objectives.

Amy Fairbairn, global director of communications and policy at environmental law organization ClientEarth, also praised the pace of Linfen's transition and the emphasis on community participation.

"I really enjoyed visiting Beiwang village," Fairbairn said. "What I thought was really important was bringing the community along with you. It felt like an inclusive approach to bringing the community with the transition. And that is something that we need globally."

The pilot program is aimed at eliminating scattered coal use through village-wide clean heating retrofits, rooftop solar photovoltaic installations, a "PV-storage-direct current-flexibility" pilot, energy storage stations and other measures covering five major projects and 10 key programs. It also promotes zero-carbon public buildings, agriculture and agricultural product processing.

Fairbairn said the site visits offered technologies that could be shared with other countries. At a Linfen Dadi Huaji Building Materials facility, she saw battery-powered heavy-duty trucks that could travel 200 kilometers on a single charge, with battery replacement taking about five minutes.

Chen Guangzhe, vice-president for Planet at the World Bank Group, said Linfen was a typical medium-sized Chinese city with an important story to tell. The projects visited all demonstrated efforts that formed part of Linfen's broader development under the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), as the city seeks to transform itself from one of China's heavily polluted cities into a greener and more sustainable one.

At the district heating exchange station, participants learned how a long-distance heating project provided centralized heating for urban residents, replacing coal-fired boilers and producing coordinated benefits in reducing air pollution and carbon emissions.

Chen said Linfen's experience demonstrated the importance of ensuring that environmental improvement supports economic development and employment.

"While reducing the reliance on coal for heating, energy and transportation, the city also needs to continue to build a green economy that will sustain jobs and continue to grow the economy," he said.

Chen said the World Bank was closely monitoring air pollution control work in China because many cities around the world face similar challenges.

"The World Bank is being asked by our client countries to bring in our global experience to support places where they can reduce air pollution," he said. "The experience in China, here in Linfen and also in Beijing, is really critical for the work that we are doing for our client countries."

He said such exchanges are part of the World Bank's country partnership with China, which emphasizes two-way knowledge sharing. The World Bank and China's Ministry of Finance have established the China-WBG Global Center for Ecological Systems and Transitions to draw on experiences from places like Linfen and explore how they can be replicated and scaled up in other countries.

Sun Zhefeng contributed to the story in Linfen.

Contact the writers at houliqiang@chinadaily.com.cn