The 6th annual U.S.-China Clean Energy Forum was held over the weekend, and passed a declaration appealing for the development of a low-carbon economy and the construction of low-carbon cities.

More than 300 experts from China and the U.S. attended the three-day forum, exploring the road to sustained urbanization.

Stan Barer, founding co-chairman of U.S.-China Clean Energy Forum said, "China and the United States together, account for nearly half of all the carbon emissions in the world, so cooperation between those two is critical."

Both countries brought their latest technologies and ideas to the forum. Among them were green buildings--buildings which minimize carbon emissions and greenhouse gas emissions, and which can track their energy consumption and regulate it by using clean energies like solar or wind power.

Wu Zhiqiang with Tongji University said, "With the large-scale introduction of clean energy, the unit cost has decreased a lot."

Shanghai is considering producing green energy installations itself, to build housing which can save money and at the same time stimulate the economy. Suburban Chongming Island is now experimenting with this. U.S. experts supported the idea and shared their plans.

Daniel Friedman, dean of College of Built Environments, University of Washington, said, "2030 is the agreed upon target date for reducing our energy consumption by a significant measurable magnitude, and cities, organizations, corporations, universities, public non-profit organizations have all adopted to sign on to the 2030 challenge."

The 2030 challenge asks the global architecture and building community to become carbon-neutral by 2030.

(CNTV.cn May 29, 2012)