Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality China's Plans and Solutions

V. Continuous Consolidation of Support and Safeguard Systems

China is continuing to strengthen its foundational capabilities in carbon emissions statistics, accounting, measurement standards, and other related aspects, while boosting scientific and technological innovation and improving its economic support policies and market-based mechanisms to systematically bolster its carbon reduction efforts.

1. Continuously Raising Foundational Capabilities

Establishing a unified and standardized statistics and accounting system for carbon emissions. China has improved carbon emissions statistics and accounting systems at both the national and provincial level by adopting uniform data standards and accounting methods. By introducing greenhouse gas emissions accounting methods and relevant national standards for enterprises in key sectors such as power, steel, and non-ferrous metals, it has refined the carbon emissions accounting mechanisms for these sectors. It has also improved the compilation mechanism for the national greenhouse gas inventory by establishing processes for regular management and updating. Additionally, it has launched a national greenhouse gas emissions factors database, with the first edition containing nearly 300 emissions factors.

Refining the standards and measurements for peak carbon and carbon neutrality. China has established a robust standards framework for its peak carbon and carbon neutrality goals, issuing 110 national standards in total, covering corporate carbon accounting, energy efficiency and consumption, carbon reduction through the circular economy, green products, and carbon reduction technologies. The country is also strengthening its carbon metrology capacity, having approved the establishment of 11 national metrological benchmarks, 71 types of metrological standard devices, and 134 types of standard materials related to carbon emissions. Progress has been made in establishing national carbon measurement centers.

Improving the management of carbon footprints. China has consolidated the foundation of carbon footprint accounting standards by releasing the standard Greenhouse Gases — Carbon Footprint of Products — Requirements and Guidelines for Quantification, which provides general rules for carbon footprint accounting of products, as well as 13 national standards for product carbon footprints, covering key products such as electrolytic aluminum, livestock products, plastic products, and internal combustion engines. Two batches of recommended group standards for carbon footprint accounting rules for industrial products have also been released, involving a total of 38 group standards that cover key products such as iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, and cement. The 2023 and 2024 electricity carbon footprint factors have been issued. Additionally, the country has improved the certification system for carbon labeling of products and carried out pilot work on product carbon footprints, involving 10 categories of key products and 26 certifying institutions. It has also organized special supervision and inspection of carbon emissions verification, inspection and testing institutions to promote the supporting capabilities of inspection and testing technologies.

2. Adopting Effective Support Policies

Improving economic policies that support green and low-carbon development. China has introduced and improved financial, tax and price policies that support green and low-carbon development. It has adopted compulsory and prioritized government procurement of energy-efficient and environmentally friendly products, with government procurement accounting for about 85 percent of the total procurement of such products. It has optimized green electricity pricing policies and green investment policies, improved the green finance standard system, and implemented structural monetary policy tools such as those supporting carbon reduction. It has improved the policy framework for climate investment and financing, launched 23 local pilot programs for climate investment and financing, and guided local governments to build climate investment and financing project pools. By the end of 2024, China's balance of green loans in local and foreign currencies stood at RMB36.6 trillion, with nearly 70 percent of the loans being directed towards projects with carbon emissions reduction effects. In the same year, the premium income of green insurance businesses reached RMB333.15 billion, while the issuance of green bonds reached RMB681.43 billion, 2.5 times that of 2020.

Panel 5 The Carbon Emission Reduction Facility

The carbon emission reduction facility (CERF) is a structural monetary policy instrument launched by China. Through special arrangement, low-cost capital is made available to financial institutions, which then issue carbon-reduction loans to enterprises in three key areas: clean energy, energy conservation and environmental protection, and carbon reduction technology. By the end of 2024, the balance of the CERF stood at about RMB438.5 billion, providing support for financial institutions to issue carbon-reduction loans exceeding RMB1.3 trillion in total.

Implementing large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in. China has rolled out large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in programs to promote the production and application of advanced equipment, increase the proportion of advanced production capacity, and encourage wider use of higher-quality consumer durables by residents. This is not only an economic policy, rather, it is a long-term climate policy aimed to promote the green transformation. From January to August 2025, new energy vehicles accounted for over 60 percent of car trade-in sales, and appliances of Level 1 energy efficiency — the highest level of efficiency — made up 92 percent of home appliances trade-in sales; more than 9,000 community-based smart recycling facilities were added nationwide. The renewal and trade-in policies are expected to result in energy saving equivalent to over 69 million tonnes of standard coal and reduction of carbon emissions of over 170 million tonnes between 2024 and 2025.

3. Boosting Scientific and Technological Innovation as an Enabling Factor

Strengthening innovation in cutting-edge and disruptive low-carbon technologies. China attaches great importance to basic research in key technologies for peak carbon and carbon neutrality goals. This has allowed the country to consistently achieve breakthroughs in key areas such as renewable energy, energy storage, and smart power grids. In 2024, China's international patent applications for green and low-carbon technologies under the Patent Cooperation Treaty reached 6,356, which was 2.3 times of the number in 2020, ranking first in the world for the fourth consecutive year.

Panel 6 Rapid Iteration and Upgrading of Wind and Photovoltaic Technologies

Photovoltaic cell technologies are rapidly iterating with a focus on improving conversion efficiency. China's photovoltaic enterprises have continued to strengthen their research and development capabilities, driving the development and application of a number of high-efficiency battery technologies. The highest conversion efficiency of perovskite cells in the country has reached 34.6 percent, and the average conversion efficiency of Chinese-produced heterojunction cells has surpassed 25.2 percent, ranking among the highest in the world.

Wind power technologies are also continually upgrading, focusing on expanding unit capacity. In terms of offshore wind power, the world's largest offshore wind turbine, with a single-unit capacity of 26 MW, has been installed; 18-20 MW offshore wind turbines have been connected to the grid; and 16 MW offshore wind turbines have achieved group operation. In terms of onshore wind power, units with a single-unit capacity of 12-15 MW have been installed, and 10 MW units have been deployed at scale. The average single-unit capacities of newly installed onshore and offshore units in 2024 were more than twice that of 2020, reaching 5.9 MW and 10 MW, respectively.

Promoting the application of advanced and applicable green, low-carbon technologies. China continues to implement demonstration projects of advanced green and low-carbon technologies. It has released 148 advanced green and low-carbon demonstration projects in two batches and 227 national key low-carbon technologies in five batches, and has strengthened the transformation and industrialization of mature, advanced and applicable low-carbon technologies. It has introduced inventories of energy-efficient and carbon-reducing technologies and equipment and major environmental protection technologies and equipment to guide enterprises to actively adopt energy-efficient, carbon-reduction and pollution-reduction technologies.

4. Gradually Improving the Market-Oriented Mechanism

Improving the institutional framework of China's carbon emissions trading market. In July 2021, China officially launched its national carbon emissions trading market, which includes industries such as electricity, iron and steel, cement, and aluminum metallurgy, covering more than 60 percent of the country's carbon emissions. As of the end of September 2025, the cumulative quota trading volume in this market had reached some 728 million tonnes, with a cumulative trading value of about RMB49.83 billion.

Making new progress in the construction of its voluntary greenhouse gas emissions reduction trading market. In January 2024, China launched its national voluntary greenhouse gas emissions reduction trading market (China Certified Emission Reduction market), and introduced methodologies for six types of projects, including carbon sequestration through afforestation. As of the end of October 2025, a total of 31 projects had been registered, achieving an emissions reduction of 15.04 million tonnes, while the cumulative trading volume had reached about 3.23 million tonnes, with a turnover of about RMB270 million.

Enhancing the vitality of the green-certificate and green electricity market. Green certificates now cover the entirety of China's renewable energy power generation sector. As of the end of August 2025, China had issued a total of some 6.92 billion green certificates, about 4.66 billion of which were tradable. The country officially launched its green electricity trading market in September 2021, and by the end of August 2025, power trading centers in China completed green electricity trading of 205 TWh, a year-on-year increase of 43.3 percent.