Blue skies frame the Shenzhen North Railway Station International Business District in Longhua. Cai Weize

Longhua District’s coordinated approach to reducing air pollution and carbon emissions has received national and provincial recognition, as the district explores ways to make urban transport cleaner and more energy-efficient.

Longhua is the only area in South China included in the Ministry of Ecology and Environment’s first group of urban pilot areas for coordinated innovation in pollution and carbon reduction.

Its pilot practices were selected by Xinhuanet as a Beautiful China development case in 2024. They were subsequently recognized as a grassroots reform and innovation case in Guangdong in 2025 and as one of the province’s Beautiful China development cases in 2026.

The district has also reported that the proportion of days with good or excellent air quality reached 95.9%, with the scale of improvement leading the city.

Transport is at the center of the initiative. Longhua data showed that motor vehicles contributed 30.7% of local PM2.5 pollution and accounted for 19.2% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2023. Fuel-powered trucks were responsible for an estimated 60% to 95% of several major transport-related pollutants, including particulate matter and nitrogen oxides.

To address the two challenges together, Longhua has adopted measures covering policy coordination, performance assessment and improvements to vehicles, roads, rail transit and energy infrastructure.

The district introduced a three-year action plan for coordinated pollution and carbon reduction covering the period from 2024 to 2026, supported by related policies for key sectors. Air quality and carbon-emissions intensity were also incorporated into district-level performance assessments.

On the road, Longhua has promoted new-energy vehicles while accelerating the replacement of older, higher-emission vehicles. As of June, the district reported 2,380 electric buses and 515 dedicated charging points, while more than 40% of its dump trucks had been electrified. A total of 325 older trucks meeting the China IV emissions standard had been scrapped or replaced.

A green logistics zone has also been established around Shenzhen North Railway Station, with light-duty diesel trucks prohibited from operating throughout the day.

Meanwhile, the district had installed about 66,000 charging points, 141 supercharging stations, 29 vehicle-to-grid facilities and 12 integrated energy stations by June. Oil-vapor recovery systems installed at filling stations reduce volatile organic compound emissions by about 80 metric tons annually, according to district figures.

A solar-tracking “photovoltaic sunflower” on Longhua's Shenzhen North Railway Station’s east plaza rotates to follow the sun, maximizing clean energy generation. Bao'an Daily

Major transport and logistics facilities provide examples of how the approach is being implemented.

A near-zero-carbon project at Shenzhen North Railway Station has passed municipal acceptance. Its distributed solar system generates approximately 2.77 million kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, while upgrades to air-conditioning and lighting systems have reduced energy use. The project reports annual carbon savings of 4,899 metric tons.

At Liguang Logistics Park, distributed solar power, waste-heat recovery, electric operating equipment and an intelligent energy-management system helped reduce carbon dioxide emissions by a reported 1,557 metric tons in 2024.

Longhua is seeking to turn the pilot’s emissions-accounting methods, green logistics practices and low-carbon technologies into standards and guidance that could be applied elsewhere. These include integrated solar-storage-charging systems, vehicle-to-grid technology and distributed solar power at transport and logistics facilities.

Together, the measures represent an effort to move beyond isolated environmental projects and address air pollution, energy use and carbon emissions through a coordinated urban transport system.