hree ministries and commissions support the construction of zero carbon parks: unit energy consumption and carbon emissions become core standards

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the National Energy Administration issued the "Notice on Carrying out the Construction of Zero Carbon Parks" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), proposing eight key tasks including accelerating the transformation of energy consumption structure in parks, vigorously promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction in parks, adjusting and optimizing industrial structure in parks, and strengthening resource conservation and intensification in parks.

It is worth noting that the "Notice" for the first time specifies several conditions that need to be met for the construction of zero carbon parks. Clear regulations have also been made on the goals that must be achieved in the construction of national level zero carbon parks, that is, for parks with an annual comprehensive energy consumption of 200000 to 1 million tons of standard coal, the unit energy consumption carbon emissions should be ≤ 0.2 tons/ton of standard coal; For parks with an annual comprehensive energy consumption of ≥ 1 million tons of standard coal, the unit energy consumption carbon emissions should be ≤ 0.3 tons/ton of standard coal.

Zero carbon park standards introduced

Industrial parks are important carriers of industrial agglomeration. Since China proposed the "dual carbon" target in 2020, as an important component of the "1+N" policy system for carbon peaking, industrial carbon peaking has clear goals and a roadmap. In August 2022, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and three other ministries issued the "Implementation Plan for Carbon Peaking in the Industrial Sector", which clearly proposed to build a green and low-carbon industrial park, construct a green and low-carbon industrial chain within the park, and promote enterprises in the park to adopt the production mode of comprehensive utilization of energy resources. By 2025, through the practice of established green industrial parks, a batch of replicable and promotable excellent typical experiences and cases of carbon peaking should be formed.

The Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of last year mentioned in the section of "Collaborative Promotion of Carbon Reduction, Pollution Reduction, and Green Growth" that a number of zero carbon parks should be established to promote the construction of the national carbon market, establish a product carbon footprint management system, and a carbon labeling certification system. During this year's Two Sessions, the government work report also proposed to solidly carry out national carbon peak pilot projects and establish a number of zero carbon parks and factories. However, there are still many challenges in practice, such as the controversy over the concept of "zero carbon parks", how to define boundaries, how to calculate carbon emissions, and the lack of synergy among various departments involved.

With the release of this notice, many questions have clear answers. The relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission stated in response to a reporter's question about the "Notice" that a "zero carbon park" refers to a park that reduces the carbon dioxide emissions generated by production and living activities in the park to a "near zero" level through planning, design, technology, management, and other means, and has the conditions to further achieve "net zero".

Moreover, the "Notice" clearly states that the construction of zero carbon parks requires four basic conditions to be met, namely that the construction subject is a provincial-level or above development zone, and may be expanded to newly constructed provincial-level emerging industry parks or high-tech parks in recent years depending on the situation; The construction scope can be the entire park or a "park within a park" with clear boundaries; The park should have a certain foundation in energy consumption and carbon emission statistics, accounting, measurement, monitoring, and other aspects; The park should not have experienced any major safety, environmental accidents or other adverse social impact events within 3 years.