China promotes use of green building materials in rural areas

Aerial photo taken on May 8, 2022 shows rural scenery of Bama Yao Autonomous County in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Lu Boan)

BEIJING, June 7 (Xinhua) -- China launched a campaign on Monday to promote use of green building materials in rural areas, with the aim of further boosting bulk commodity consumption and stabilizing national economy, the Xinhua-run Shanghai Securities News reported on Tuesday.

Green building materials refer to such building materials featuring energy-efficiency, emission reduction, safety, convenience, and recycling. They can reduce the consumption of natural resources and the impact on ecological environment in their whole life cycle.

With rapid advancement of urbanization, towns and villages have become one of the main consumers of building materials in China.

It is estimated by some enterprises that nearly 2 billion square meters of rural houses in China need to be renovated every year. According to this estimation, the market value of building materials for rural housing renovation will roughly be about 100 billion yuan per year. Taking into account rural infrastructure construction and the shift to use solar energy, rural building materials market may hit trillion-yuan level every year.

In 2021, the output value of green building materials in China exceeded 65 billion yuan, said Xing Tao, deputy director of the raw materials industry department under the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), adding that the prioritized use of green building materials in house renovation, green buildings, prefabricated buildings and other engineering construction projects should be encouraged.

In March, the MIIT issued a notice on promoting use of green building materials in the countryside in 2022, which made it clear that China would select about five pilot areas this year to trial the scheme and urge the pilot areas to grant appropriate subsidies or subsidized interest for green building materials consumption. (Edited by Su Dan with Xinhua Silk Road, sudan@xinhua.org)