Carbon Neutral Solutions
President Xi has made nine external announcements in a short period of time, sounding the clarion call for national carbon peaking and carbon neutrality actions.
“3060”goal-“2030 peak carbon dioxide emissions”, “2060 carbon neutrality”
President Xi stressed at the 10th meeting of the Central Committee for Comprehensive Deepening Reform on September 9, 2019: “We should actively respond to plastic pollution, firmly establish a new development concept, orderly prohibit and restrict the production, selling and use of some plastic products, and actively promote recyclable, easily recollected and degradable alternative products...”
January 16, 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC )and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the “Opinions on Further Strengthening the Control of Plastic Pollution”.
April 10, 2020, NDRC issued the “Catalogue of Plastic Products Prohibited and Restricted from Production, Sales and Use (Draft for Comments)”.
July 10, 2020, NDRC, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and other nine departments jointly issued the “Notice on Solid Progress of Plastic Pollution Control Work”.
September 22, 2020, the general debate of 75th UN General Assembly
September 30, 2020, UN Climate Diversity Summit
November 12, 2020, 3rd Paris Peace Forum
November 17, 2020, The 12th BRICS Summit
November 22, 2020, G20 Leaders Summit in Riyadh
December 12, 2020, Climate Ambition Summit 2020
January 23, 2021, World Economic Forum “Davos Agenda”15Mar. 2021, President Xi proposed to incorporate carbon peaking and carbon neutrality into the overall layout of ecological civilization construction
April 22, 2021, President Xi attended the Leaders Climate Summit and pledged to achieve carbon peaking to carbon neutrality in a much shorter time than developed countries.
November 15, 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the “14th Five-Year Plan for Industrial Green Development”, proposing the development of polylactic acid, PBS and other bio-based materials to achieve industrial carbon peak progress.
May 10, 2022, NDRC issued the “14th Five-Year Plan of biological economy development”, deploying the five key tasks of biological economy development, which is the first five-year plan involving biological economy in China.
Various ministries have made arrangements to focus on carbon peaking and carbon neutrality
December 16-18, 2020, the Central Economic Work Conference identified carbon peaking and carbon neutrality as eight key tasks in 2021.
Ministry of Ecology and Environment: Carbon Peak Action will be included in environmental protection supervision to address the synergistic effect of climate change and ecosystem protection.
NDRC: Measures were put forward in terms of industry, energy, technology, mechanisms and carbon sinks to achieve the "3060" target.
Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) : Formulate action plans for carbon peak in key industries, and layout the development of new energy vehicles to achieve industrial low-carbon emission reduction.
Central Bank: To promote the realization of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and guide the green development of financial resources.
State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) : Promote the central enterprises to actively participate in the action to achieve carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and play a leading and exemplary role.
Domestic enterprises in various industries layout carbon peak, carbon neutrality, accelerating low-carbon transition.
October 24, 2020, Yili led the industry in committing to achieve carbon neutrality, and actively responded to the national goal of "China to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060".
November 23, 2020, Sinopec launched the study on carbon emission peaking and carbon neutrality strategy.
December 8, 2020, the State Power Investment Group announced to achieve the "carbon peak" target by 2023.
December 20, 2020, the National Energy Group: Accelerate the formulation of 2025 carbon emissions peak action plan.
December 21, 2020, China Huaneng: Actively bear the historical mission to develop the company's carbon emissions peak solution.
December 28, 2020, Volkswagen Group put forward the "3-step" development strategy of "carbon peak by 2028, near-zero emissions by 2025 and carbon neutrality by 2060".
On December 28, 2020, State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) held a special meeting to study the action plan of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality".
December 30, 2020, Jinneng Holding Group: Held the “Carbon Peak, Carbon Neutrality”strategic research arrangement and deployment meeting, to promote the" Carbon Peak, Carbon Neutrality "strategic research from a strategic and overall height.
January 8, 2021, as the first enterprise in the photovoltaic industry, Longji took the lead in releasing the “Green Supply Chain Carbon Reduction Initiative”.
January 12, 2021, Tencent has actively responded to China's carbon neutrality goal and has begun to advance the neutralization plan.
January 12, 2021, 17 petrochemical enterprises, chemical industry park and China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation jointly signed and issued in Beijing “China petroleum and chemical industrial carbon declaration of reach peak and carbon neutral”, as a new era of China petroleum and chemical industry practice green development concept, new starting point of the construction of ecological civilization and the beautiful earth.
January 16, 2021, China Building Materials Association (CCA) issued the Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutral Action Initiative for construction materials industry, solemnly put forward and proposed to the whole industry that China's construction materials industry should fully achieve carbon peak before 2025, and cement and other industries should take the lead in achieving carbon peak before 2023.
January 20, 2021, China Baowu carbon emission reduction goal: Release of low carbon metallurgy roadmap in 2021, strive to achieve carbon peak in 2023, have the technological capacity to reduce carbon by 30% by 2025, strive to reduce carbon 30% in 2035, and strive to achieve carbon neutrality in 2050.
January 21, 2021, Datang Group 2021 Work Conference: Reach carbon peak 5 years in advance.
January 25, 2021, China Southern Power Grid: Stepped up efforts to formulate the implementation services reach carbon peak, carbon neutral work plan.
February 1, 2021, BYD announced the launch of the enterprise carbon neutral planning study to explore the carbon footprint standard of the new energy vehicle industry, leading China's automobile industry into a new stage of green development.
February 3, 2021, Tongwei Group announced the comprehensive launch of its carbon neutral program and its plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2023.
Economic And Social Development With Carbon Emissions
With rapid economic and social development, our country accelerated to promote green and low carbon transition and actively participated in global climate governance, which has achieved remarkable results. But China's industrial structure, energy structure transformation task still has a long way to go.
In 2019, the carbon emission of the whole society (including LULUCF) was about 10.5 billion tons, of which the carbon emission from energy activities was about 9.8 billion tons, accounting for about 87% of the total carbon emission of the whole society (excluding LULUCF).
In terms of energy types, coal-fired power generation and heating accounted for 44 % of carbon emissions from energy activities, coal terminal combustion accounted for 35%, and oil and natural gas accounted for 15% and 6% respectively.
In terms of energy activities, the carbon emissions from energy production and conversion, industry, transportation and construction accounted for 47%, 36%, 9% and 8% of the carbon emissions from energy activities respectively. In the industrial sector, steel, building materials and chemical industries accounted for 17%, 8% and 6% of the carbon emissions respectively.
China’s Energy-Related Industrial Field Carbon Dioxide Emission ConstitutesHow Do Companies Become Carbon-neutral
Step 1-Definition: Know exactly what your footprint should cover.
Step 2-Measurement: Accurate and conservative calculation.
Step 3-Set Target: Set targets to reduce the footprint you define and offset all remaining emissions.
Step 4-Reduction: Make internal reductions and offset all remaining emissions by funding verified reductions and clearance.
Step 5-Communication: Show your climate actions and interact with your team, customers, and stakeholders.
A Common Way for Companies to Become Carbon Neutral
The Easy Overlooked Part of Carbon Neutrality
Two important functions of the petrochemical industry:
Provide the energy services needed for human activities, including electricity, heat, and transportation mobility.
Through the petrochemical industry, it provides the raw materials necessary for human life and production activities, such as plastics, fertilizers and various chemical fiber materials.
In the post-oil era, there are two main development trends
Using biomass renewable resources, using biological manufacturing technology to produce bio-materials (PLA, PBS, PHA, etc.), gradually replace petrochemical materials (chemical fiber, plastic, etc.), to develop in the direction of environmental protection, non-toxic, biodegradable and biodegradable.
New energy vehicles gradually replace gasoline and diesel vehicles, solar energy, nuclear energy, hydrogen energy gradually replace fossil energy, to develop in the direction of clean, efficient and sustainable energy.
Carbon Footprint of the PLA
Compared with traditional fossil-based polymers, PLA has reliable biosafety and biodegradable properties. Since PLA comes from biological bases, PLA has a significant effect in carbon reduction, and the carbon emissions are significantly reduced compared with traditional fossil-based plastics.
New Ways to Achieve the "Double-carbon" Goal
Carbon capture and storage is a technique that collects carbon dioxide produced by a factories and stores it in various methods to avoid its emissions into the atmosphere. This technology is considered as an effective way to greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the future. Different from the traditional carbon capture, the use of photosynthesis products (food, straw, agriculture and forestry waste, etc.) as raw materials, the production of biomaterial polylactic acid, processing preparation of green fiber, green plastic products, in the process of use and degradation does not produce micro plastic particles pollution, do not release harmful gases, harmless to people and animals, and can be directly landfill, realize the new mode of carbon capture.