NEWS

With its action plan, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) aims to provide guidance to China’s cement sector for achieving energy savings and carbon reduction. The main goals of the plan are to keep cement clinker production capacity at about 1.8 billion tons and to support the entire industry to comply with rules under an efficiency benchmark. The energy intensity of cement clinker production is targeted to decrease by 3.7% compared with 2020, thereby saving 5 million tons of standard coal and 13 million tons of CO2 by 2025.

China’s Ministry of Ecology and the Environment (MEE) issued a program for a carbon footprint management system to develop low-carbon supply chains. This program of MEE is the first national-level policy to establish a domestic carbon footprint management system. The target of the program is the establishment of a general standard for product carbon footprint (PCF) accounting with international standards. It will define about 100 carbon footprint accounting standards for key products until 2027 and 200 until 2030.

China’s State Council issued a 2024-2025 action plan for energy saving and carbon reduction. Goals include cutting energy consumption by 2.5% and CO2 intensity by 3.9% in 2024 while increasing non-fossil energy usage to 18.9% in 2024 and 20% in 2025. The plan projects a reduction of approximately 50 Mt of standard coal and a decrease in emissions by around 130 Mt of CO2. Measures involve strict coal consumption controls, the promotion of new energy vehicles, and enhanced energy efficiency in industries such as steel, petrochemicals, non-ferrous metals, building materials, architecture, transportation and public institutions.

The State Council of China has released the first legal framework for carbon market governance. The new regulatory framework provides clearer and stricter guidelines compared to previous rules, including penalties for falsification of emissions data and institutional support for a functional operation of China’s Emission Trading System (China ETS). The new regulations will take effect from May 1st, 2024.