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In an eco-friendly demo city in China’s central province of Hubei, a futuristic, eye-catching building has become a new urban landmark.

The Sino-French City Planning Hall, designed by French architect Denis Laming and preserved as a local heritage site marking bilateral joint efforts in eco-friendly urbanism, attested to the two countries’ close cooperation in green development.

Co-building eco-city for tomorrow

The Sino-French Wuhan Ecological Demonstration City, initiated in 2014 by the governments of both countries, aims to facilitate exchange of Chinese and French experience and know-how in green urbanism.

Until January, the 39-square km project in Caidian District, Wuhan City has secured as much as 38 billion yuan (about US$5,8 billion) in fixed asset investment, according to official figure of the eco-city’s management committee. Small neighborhoods and a dense road network, as seen in the city plan jointly-developed by French and Chinese experts, reflect both French urban elements and low carbon emission features, said Ma Wangtao, director of land use planning and construction of the committee. Architecture in the eco-city are required to take green building ratings, said the committee.

By 2025, the city will have a residential capacity of 120,000 people and provide 60 000 job opportunities, shows the city’s 2018-2027 developmental plan.

The eco-city project will not only help promote Sino-French cooperation in energy-saving technologies, but also strengthen mutual political trust and deepen exchanges in culture and tourism, Zeng Yingying, associate professor at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

Wind power great potential

As to green energy sector, a technological-savvy China took some French people, including Aude Telot, a college student in Paris, by surprise.

“What surprised me today is to see that China has a very great technological knowledge” in the field of wind energy, Telot said while attending the opening day of CGN Europe Energy, a branch of the China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) on December 31 in the capital city.

During the event, Jean-Baptiste Breban, team leader of CGN Europe’s control center, greeted the students of the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, and presented the use of artificial intelligence and digitization in the company’s safety management of wind farms. The CGN Europe Energy has a wind farm in Charmont-sous-Barbuise, which has been propelling electricity for 7,500 local households since 2010.

The facility boasts six turbines with a total installed capacity of 12 megawatts.

Meanwhile, China’s first offshore wind power project with foreign investment started construction in October last year in the sea off Dongtai City, eastern China’s Jiangsu Province, thanks to the joint venture between the China Energy Investment Corporation (China Energy) and French energy giant EDF Group.

Climate cooperation well underway

As climate change has been a major challenge facing the world, tackling climate change becomes a priority of global sustainable development and one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

Under the framework of the China-France comprehensive strategic partnership, the two countries have established a partnership for tackling climate change and achieved important results in their cooperation.

Former French Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin said in an earlier interview with Xinhua that China and France have undertaken fruitful cooperation under the Paris Agreement and China is an indispensable partner in the field of addressing climate change.

In 2018, the China-France Year of the Environment, a China-France oceanographic satellite was sent into space, allowing scientist of the two countries to cooperate in the study of wind-wave dynamics on the surface of the oceans. – Xinhua.