China has set its sights on building zero-carbon factories faster, in order to develop industrial green transformation and support the country's goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality.

To make this happen, a new guideline has been released defining a zero-carbon factory as an industrial facility that continuously reduces carbon dioxide emissions and gradually approaches near-zero emissions within the factory boundary, through  the use of technological innovation, structural adjustment and management optimization. The guideline was jointly released by five government departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the National Development and Reform Commission.

The initiative aims to guide industrial enterprises in piloting zero-carbon practices, and promote emission reduction and efficiency improvement across industries to foster the development of new-quality productive forces tailored to local conditions.

The guideline calls for the deep integration of green energy with modern manufacturing, technological innovation with industrial upgrading, and green transformation with intelligent manufacturing, all in order to drive fundamental changes in production technologies and operational models.

A phased and differentiated approach will be adopted. From 2026, China plans to select a group of zero-carbon factories to play a demonstrative role. By 2027, a batch of zero-carbon factories are to be established in sectors such as automobiles, lithium batteries, photovoltaics, electronic appliances, light industry, machinery and computing facilities. This will form a preliminary industrial ecosystem covering energy supply, technology development, standards and financial support. By 2030, the initiative aims to expand to sectors including steel, non-ferrous metals, petrochemicals, building materials and textiles, exploring new decarbonization pathways for traditionally high energy consuming industries.

The guideline outlines six key implementation pathways, including establishing standardized carbon accounting systems, accelerating the green and low-carbon transformation of energy consumption structure, significantly improving energy utilization efficiency, promoting product carbon footprint analysis to drive supply-chain-wide emission reductions, enhancing digital and intelligent capabilities to achieve smart carbon control, and using carbon offset mechanisms and information disclosure to achieve near-zero emissions.

Enterprises are encouraged to increase the use of renewable energy, apply advanced energy-saving equipment, and adopt digital technologies such as industrial Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and digital twins to enable precise monitoring and intelligent control of energy consumption and carbon emissions.

To ensure effective implementation, local industrial and information technology authorities are urged to strengthen coordination, improve standard systems, and promote market-oriented energy-saving and carbon-reduction services.

The guideline also highlights the importance of developing professionals proficient in both international carbon related regulations and carbon neutrality practices, while enhancing international exchanges and cooperation.