Download New Thinking on Low-carbon Consumption Under Low-carbon Economy Era

New Thinking on Low-carbon Consumption Under Low-carbon
Economy Era
SUN Yanhong
Shandong University of Technology
[email protected]
Abstract: Nowadays, climate change is profoundly affecting human existence and development, posing
a grave challenge to all of us. To reduce carbon dioxide emissions and develop the low-carbon economy
has become the consensus of the world, and the low-carbon consumption is the fundamental demand in
the course of social development and the inevitable choice in the development of low-carbon economy.
This study firstly defined the connotations of low-carbon economy and low-carbon consumption, then
attempted to establish the circular model of low-carbon consumption and analyzed the correlation of
various factors, and finally summarized three levels of low-carbon consumption.
Keywords: low-carbon economy, marketing, low-carbon consumption, circular mode
1.
Introduction
Currently, climate change is profoundly affecting human existence and development, posing a grave
challenge to all of us. “The financial crisis is the result of our overdraft consumption, and the climate
crisis is the result of our overdraft of the earth’s resources,” Yvo de Boer, executive secretary for United
Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), said thought-provokingly. After the
Copenhagen Climate Conference, “low carbon” has emerged as a hot word in the society, and to reduce
carbon dioxide emissions and develop low-carbon economy has become the world consensus. Along
with it, a number of new concepts, such as carbon footprint, carbon trade, carbon tariff, low-carbon
economy, low-carbon technology, low-carbon development, low-carbon consumption, low-carbon
lifestyle, low-carbon society, and low-carbon city, have come into existence. Meanwhile, all countries
have come up with their own low-carbon economic development strategy, starting a new round of
industrial, technological, and economic competitions, and low-carbon economy has become an
important manifestation of national or corporate competitiveness.
It can thus be said that the world economy, after the ages of industrialization and informatization, is now
heralding the age of low-carbonization. The low-carbon economy era has rushed before us unstoppably.
To China, this international background presents both challenges and opportunities, and how to grasp
the opportunities and how to take up the challenges are strategic issues Chinese enterprises must face up
to.
To actively cope with the climate change is a major strategy for China’s social and economic
development and a great opportunity for the country to accelerate its transition and restructuring of
economic development. At the UN Climate Change Summit on September 22, 2009, Chinese President
Hu Jintao declared, “China strives to achieve the remarkable reduction of the carbon emissions of per
unit GDP in 2020, compared with that of 2005.” At the Executive Meeting of the State Council on
November 25 in the same year, the task was further specified: “The carbon emissions of per unit GDP
shall be cut down by 40-50% by 2020 from the level of 2005. This goal, as a constraint indicator, shall
be included in the 12th Five-year Plan and subsequent medium and long-term plans for national
economic and social development, and corresponding methods for statistics, monitoring, and assessment
shall be formulated.” This quantified initiative on emission reduction clearly signals that the low-carbon
economic development has entered into the substantive stages of operation and development and the
low-carbon economy has become the inevitable fact that confronts companies and organizations.
2.
Low-carbon Consumption under Low-carbon Economy Era
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2.1 What is low-carbon economy?
Low carbon refers to low or lower emissions of greenhouse gases (mainly CO). The concept
“low-carbon economy” appeared for the first time in the UK Energy White Paper, Our Energy Future:
Creating a Low-carbon Economy, in 2003 and has since then attracted worldwide attention. In 2007,
The Low-carbon Economy Act was ratified in America, indicating that the low-carbon economy would
become its important strategic choice.
In fact, low-carbon economy is a mode of sustainable economic development, low energy consumption,
pollution level, and emission, and high efficacy, efficiency, and profits, that the people advocate so as to
mitigate the global climate change, cope with the energy crisis, put the concept of sustainable
development into practice, and seek for new breakthroughs in the mode of eco-economic development.
The core concept of low-carbon economic development is to produce great economic, environmental,
and social benefits with a small quantity of carbon emissions, that is, under the guidance of sustainable
development and with the means such as technological innovation, institutional innovation, industrial
transformation, and the development of new energy, the consumption of high-carbon fuels such as coal
and oil should be cut as much as possible to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases and achieve a
win-win economic development between economic and social development and environmental
protection. ” Zhu Shouxian and Zhuang Guiyang described the low-carbon economy more briefly as
“the economic form where both carbon productivity and human development reach a certain level.”
They emphasized the constraint exerted by human development on carbon emissions, but at the same
time advocated that the constraint on carbon emissions should not impede the goal of human
development: the two should influence each other and develop in harmony.
2.2 What is low-carbon consumption?
Low-carbon economy is composed of low-carbon production and low-carbon consumption.
Consumption has a reaction force on production and leads to some extent the direction and trend of
production. The consumers’ acceptance and practice of low-carbon consumption can fundamentally
promote low-carbon production; otherwise, low-carbon production cannot find the ultimate outlet, and
the low-carbon economy as a whole will become nothing but a castle in the air.
In addition to the government’s strict macro-control policies and economic restructuring and corporate
efforts in technological innovation, energy conservation, and consumption reduction out of their
responsibility for environmental protection, whether the concept and mode of low-carbon consumption
can be formed in the whole society under the influence of low-carbon consumption culture also plays an
important role in developing the low-carbon economy.
The mode of consumption is the method and form by which the consumer and the consumer goods
integrate to satisfy the demands under certain level of productive forces and certain relations of
production, i.e., the organic integration of the natural and social forms of consumption. The mode of
low-carbon consumption is the fundamental demand in the development course of human society and
the necessary choice of low-carbon economic development.
Low-carbon consumption is one of the specific manifestations of the low-carbon lifestyle, which is
relatively healthy, safe, natural, and low-cost. Not limited to the consumer’s self-satisfaction,
low-carbon consumption, a new development mode of sustainable consumption, emphasizes the
consumption experience at a high level, great economic, social, and environmental benefits, and the
common satisfaction and harmonious development of people and social environment to realize the goal
of ultimately solving the environmental crisis for our existence.
2.3 The circular model of low-carbon consumption
The core concept of the model of low-carbon consumption is to produce the maximum social, economic,
and environmental benefits with the minimum carbon emissions. To this end, the effort should be first
made to build the strong low-carbon atmosphere in the whole society to establish the
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low-carbon-oriented values and moral standards. Only when the whole society has reached a consensus
on low carbon and environmental protection can the lifestyle and mode of consumption transform,
which would consequently change the economic and industrial structures, thus laying a widespread
social and cultural foundation for the burgeoning development of the low-carbon economy. It can be
said that the development of low-carbon economy and consumption is sure to be influenced and
constrained by low-carbon culture. Carbon sink, a by-product of global warming, refers to the process,
activity, and mechanism of removing carbon dioxide from the air. The mechanism of carbon sink,
therefore, is the common objective and manifestation of low-carbon technologies and lifestyles and the
criteria for judging and measuring the corporate application of low-carbon technologies and the
consumer’s low-carbon lifestyle. Using the low-carbon technologies, the enterprises manufacture
low-carbon products or offer low-carbon services and at the same time attempt to raise the low-carbon
value added. The consumers, under the guidance of low-carbon lifestyle, obtain high low-carbon value
added and perfect low-carbon experience from their low-carbon consumption. The mode of low-carbon
consumption, on the basis of assuring the low-carbon social and environmental objectives, maximally
safeguards the consumers’ right to meet their basic demands. Low-carbon consumption is an important
aspect of low-carbon economy that in turn further promotes the development of low-carbon
consumption, thus forming a circular mode of sustainable development. The circular model of
low-carbon consumption represents the co-existence consumption mode by which man and nature as
well as social and ecological environments exist in harmony, develop in a sound way and circulate
sustainably. (See Figure 1)
：
Low-carbon economy
Low-carbon technology
Low-carbon mechanism
Low-carbon lifestyle
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Low-carbon culture
Figure1 The Circular Model of Low-carbon Consumption
Low-carbon lifestyle
Low-carbon experience
Low-carbon value added
Low-carbon products
Low-carbon culture
Low-carbon consumption
2.4 Levels of low-carbon consumption
The consumer's low-carbon consumption is a continuous and gradual course of development. In terms of
the amount of carbon emissions and the magnitude of carbon footprint (the effects of carbon
consumption from an individual or enterprise on the nature), there are three levels of low-carbon
consumption.
The first level and the most preliminary stage is that the consumer pays attention to the amount of
emissions of greenhouse gases and attempts to reduce the emissions by his own efforts. This level
mainly involves the self-discipline and sound consumption behaviors of the consumer, such as raising
the interrelated awareness of energy conservation and environmental protection to eliminate habits of
one-time consumption, getting rid of bad modes of consumption such as “face consumption”, “luxury
consumption” and “ostentatious consumption”, improving the way of transport, such as choosing
environment-friendly walking or bicycle, and developing habits of energy conservation.
The second level is the medium level of low-carbon consumption. At this level, low-carbon
consumption is no longer limited to behaviors and at the same time naturally displays the social culture
and value orientation. By means of the culture and mode of the healthy and sustainable low-carbon
consumption, the consumption results produce minimum health hazards to the environment but benefit
most the sustainable development of the mankind. Among them, the “responsible consumption” is
popular.
The third level, or the advanced level, of low-carbon consumption mainly refers to the long-term
sustainable development of the industrial clusters that form the low-carbon industrial chain, which is
committed to developing new energy and forming new industrial clusters. China is now drawing up the
plan to revitalize the industry of new energy, according to which the industry, including the innovative
ability and industrial application, will be comprehensively improved and developed. With a relatively
complete chain of wind power and solar energy and the industrial cluster having taken shape now, China
is promoting the low-carbonization of high-carbon industrial chain, distributing the value profit,
restructuring the high-carbon industry, so as to promote the economic transformation and forge the new
development trend of productive forces.
3.
Conclusion
The low-carbon consumption-led low-carbon economy era is an irreversible trend. Just as globalization
and IT, the low-carbon economy will produce new points of economic growth and become the strong
force to remold the pattern of world economy. Studies on the low-carbon consumption can help
enterprises in the new environment of competition and in the face of new competitors find more
opportunities in the market and consequently stay forever at the forefront of the market competition.
References
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