As a critical energy and industrial base in China, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region plays a pivotal role in achieving the country’s carbon peaking and neutrality goals. Industry parks in particular constitute the backbone of Inner Mongolia’s economy and account for a substantial share of the region’s carbon emissions. Industrial decarbonisation is gaining increasing priority in China and on a global scale. More than 75% of national climate targets, the so-called Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (UNFCCC), include industrial processes and product use. Similarly, Germany places great emphasis on decarbonising its industry, guided by the recently launched EU Clean Industrial Deal and Germany’s target to become climate neutral by 2045. These shared ambitions create significant opportunities for exchange and cooperation in areas such as carbon accounting methodologies as well as industrial decarbonisation roadmaps and measures.
To support local climate mitigation efforts in Inner Mongolia, the Sino-German Cooperation on Climate Change – NDC Implementation project has been working closely with the Department of Ecology and Environment of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region and the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Ecology and Environment Low-Carbon Development Center. In this context, a workshop was held on 9 December 2025 in Hohhot, bringing together experts from Climate Analytics, as well as local government representatives and technical specialists. The workshop facilitated in-depth exchange on approaches to synergistic reduction of air pollution and carbon emissions in industry parks. Particular attention was given to industry parks dominated by ferroalloy production enterprises, as well as to pathways for standardising corporate carbon emissions accounting.
Exchanging European and local best practices and approaches
Lessons learned from Europe
A representative from Climate Analytics presented key findings of their upcoming report on European best practices on low carbon industry parks. One of the major insights underscoring the critical role of a conducive policy framework. In Europe, the gradual phase-out of free allowances under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), alongside the upcoming phase-in of the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), is creating increasing regulatory pressure on companies to reduce emissions providing strong economic incentives for industrial actors to invest in decarbonisation and low-carbon technologies. Other enabling factors include robust mechanisms for mobilising finance such as the Carbon Contracts for Difference scheme in Germany as well as policies that boost research and development or increase demand. Current challenges include limited access to financing and the continued influence of fossil fuel interests on regulatory decisions. Measuring the carbon reduction performance of industry parks is difficult, particularly the standardisation of performance indicators. These indicators often depend heavily on the national context, the structure of the industry parks, and the types of companies operating within them, which makes establishing universally applicable standards difficult.
The presentation included a critical analysis of three case studies from Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. Importantly, the evaluation shed light on the impact of different governance models on the success of decarbonisation efforts in industry parks. For example, privately owned parks faced more challenges in accessing state support. Also, authoritative park operator leadership as well as having strong climate targets in place proved beneficial. The main recommendations for China’s future low-carbon industry park developments are to align financial mechanisms with decarbonisation goals, pay attention to monitoring, reporting and verification (MRV) of emissions, and look into public-private governance models.
Best practices from Inner Mongolia
In the second session of the workshop, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Ecology and Environment Low-Carbon Development Center introduced their research in which they propose new evaluation standards for industry parks in Inner Mongolia.
First, the establishment of a carbon footprint accounting system for typical ferroalloy enterprises was outlined. So far, Inner Mongolia has been implementing a dual control policy on energy consumption and intensity to improve energy efficiency and slow down the growth of overall energy use, particularly of fossil fuels. However, it is currently transitioning to a model of controlling both carbon emission intensity and the total carbon emissions, which represents a significant update, aligned with the national development strategy and serving as a fundamental measure to achieve China’s goals of carbon peaking before 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. By standardising the boundaries and methodologies for carbon emissions accounting, the new framework enables ferroalloy production enterprises to address the current lack of specialised guidelines for greenhouse gas emission accounting in ferroalloy production enterprises. The guidelines provide the foundation to accurately assess and understand their emissions, develop targeted reduction plans, and support the establishment of a greenhouse gas accounting standard system for industrial enterprises in Inner Mongolia. Ultimately, it contributes to the region’s comprehensive shift from managing energy consumption to managing carbon emissions. Second, an analysis of existing indicator systems for energy conservation and carbon reduction as well as pollution reduction in Chinese industry parks was presented.
The workshop concluded with a discussion on the topics of data collection and accounting, park management and the introduction of low-carbon technologies in Inner Mongolia. In this context, feedback was provided on the research presented. Summarising key points of the discussion, it was acknowledged that data access currently represents a major challenge and that using default indicators instead of actual emission values may impair data reliability. For the future, experts recommend leveraging AI systems and big data to enhance carbon management. Moreover, the entire lifecycle should be considered, including emissions associated with waste, to ensure comprehensive carbon accounting. The Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Ecology and Environment Low-Carbon Development Center is hopeful that their study can inform the indicator system for carbon reduction on the national level.
The workshop and related activities are part of the Sino-German Cooperation on Climate Change – NDC implementation project, a bilateral cooperation project under the International Climate Initiative (IKI) commissioned by the Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) of the Federal Republic of Germany in partnership with the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) of the People’s Republic of China. It is jointly implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH and China’s National Centre for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC).
