A panoramic view of Baotou city in Inner Mongolia [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The establishment of a carbon neutrality demonstration forest and carbon test facilities reportedly got under way recently in Baotou city, which is situated in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region.

Construction of the Carbon Peak Carbon Neutrality Forest and Grass Carbon Sink (Baotou) Test Area is understood to have officially started in Baotou – part of China's goals of reaching peak carbon emissions in 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality in 2060.

A total of 326 million yuan ($50.27 million) in funding from the state and autonomous region, as well as approval on 11 projects, was obtained. Preliminary protection and restoration tasks covering 662,000 mu (44,133 hectares) of forest and grassland have been completed.

As a result, the construction of carbon neutrality demonstration forests was fully launched and the construction of a comprehensive management platform for carbon-neutral forests in the city was promoted.

Baotou has worked hard to carry out its investment promotions work in this field of endeavor. Since the start of the current year, it has communicated with 12 companies, five scientific research institutes and three universities, as well as invited some enterprises to conduct on-site inspections.

The city has signed scientific research cooperation agreements with the Research Institute of Forestry at the Chinese Academy of Forestry, the Institute of Grassland Research at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and Baotou Teachers' College.

In addition, the city is working hard on the management of landscapes, forests, fields, lakes, grasslands and sand.

For the full year, plans are to implement 812,500 mu of afforestation and establish 1.01 million mu of grassland.

As of June 21, some 231,000 mu of afforestation and 431,000 mu of grassland had reportedly been completed.