Plan aims to nurture zero-emission factories

Editor's note: The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has launched an initiative to develop national-level zero-carbon factories. Several experts, including He Kebin, dean of the Institute for Carbon Neutrality at Tsinghua University, and Chen Daji, deputy head of the China Electronics Standardization Institute, explained what zero-carbon factories are and the importance of the move. Below are excerpts of their comments as reported by Xinhua News Agency. The views don't necessarily represent those of China Daily.

A zero-carbon factory does not imply it emits absolutely no carbon dioxide. Instead, the term signifies efforts by the factory to implement systematic emissions reduction measures. These include technological innovation, structural adjustments and management optimization to fully tap into its emissions reduction potential. The goal is to minimize emissions as much as possible under current technical and economic conditions and to continuously improve operations so that the factory's carbon dioxide emissions are at the lowest possible level.

Under the initiative, there are three core indicators for a national-level zero-carbon factory: carbon emissions per unit of energy consumption, the proportion of nonfossil energy consumption, and the percentage of nonfossil power in the electricity used by the factory. These indicators provide measurable and verifiable criteria for defining a "national-level zero-carbon factory".

Carbon emissions per unit of energy consumption measure the amount of carbon dioxide emitted for each tonne of standard coal consumed. While different industries may adopt different development paths, the objective should be to steadily reduce emissions and move toward near-zero emissions.

The indicator of the share of nonfossil energy consumption will encourage enterprises to accelerate the green and low-carbon transition of their energy mix. The share of electricity consumption coming from nonfossil energy will encourage enterprises to increase the use of such electricity and enhance the supply, local utilization and physical traceability of nonfossil energy-based electricity.

One sector that has witnessed rapid growth in energy consumption in China is computing power infrastructure. In 2025, electricity consumed by such infrastructure accounted for approximately 1.6 percent of the total consumption in China.

Going forward, computing power infrastructure operators should strengthen collaboration among different sectors, including equipment procurement, project construction, energy supply, operation and maintenance, and the use of computing power to ensure the selection of low-carbon equipment, better utilization of green electricity and eco-friendly management of infrastructure.

Intelligent carbon control is crucial for establishing zero-carbon factories. Companies in the automobile industry should seize the opportunity of the country's zero-carbon factory initiative and enhance their digital capacity for energy and carbon management. They need to develop a data collection network which covers the whole factory to enable automatic aggregation and real-time transmission of energy consumption and carbon emissions data.

As the initiative progresses, China is expected to foster a number of national-level zero-carbon factories. These factories will play an important role in exploring practical ways for the green and low-carbon transition of the country's industrial sector, providing strong support to the country's green growth.