APP-China, a leading paper manufacturer, was selected as a national role model for emissions reduction at the China Summit on Caring for Climate held in Beijing on Wednesday.

"This is one of the best recognitions for our efforts made during the implementation of a sustainable development strategy," said Zhai Jingli, deputy CEO of the company.

The practices of APP-China and other model companies in environmental protection will be compiled into a report that will be submitted by the United Nations Global Compact to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris in December.

A warmup for the climate change conference, this year's summit, organized primarily by the Global Compact Network China, aimed to showcase tangible actions and achievements by Chinese governments, companies and regions in handling climate change and achieving sustainable development.

Zhai said papermaking has faced challenges of high resource and energy consumption and high pollution.

"Many people believe the paper industry runs counter to environmental protection, and this award helped us prove that the industry can also realize green development," she said.

"Nowadays, grim challenges brought about by climate change can no longer be ignored, so a green and low-carbon development strategy should be implemented and promoted as a top priority by Chinese companies and governments at all levels," she added.

For example, Teguh Ganda Wijaya, chairman of the Asia Pulp and Paper Group, attended last year's United Nations Climate Summit in New York, during which he signed an anti-deforestation pledge, together with a group of government, nongovernment and corporate representatives, to protect the world's forests and cope with climate change, Zhai said.

APP-China has considered its "plantation-pulp-paper integration" a core business concept for more than two decades to realize sustainable operations in China and uses plantations to supply the primary raw materials to its subsidiaries.

The company has 300,000 hectares of plantations in China, which can capture 8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year and store 2.17 million tons of carbon.

APP-China also values investments in environment protection technologies and related equipment to improve management of water resources and energy and control polluting gases and solid waste.

As of this year, the company has invested more than 8.4 billion yuan ($1.35 billion; 1.24 billion euros) to build environmental protection facilities. Its energy consumption and emissions are now both "far better than the national standards", Zhai said.

Last year, it initiated the largest photovoltaic project in the pulp and paper industry, with a total investment of nearly 2 billion yuan, which will cover its eight plants in Jiangsu and Hainan provinces and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

The project requires 4 million square meters - an equivalent to 560 football fields - of solar photovoltaic panels and would realize an annual power output of 200 million kilowatt hours when completed.

Compared with a thermal power plant with the same generating capacity, it can annually save nearly 80,000 tons of coal and reduce 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and 17,000 tons of sulfur dioxide emissions.

haonan@chinadaily.com.cn