Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality China's Plans and Solutions
III. In-Depth Low-Carbon Development in Key Areas
Industry, transport, construction, and daily life are key areas that generate carbon emissions and have a significant impact on achieving peak carbon and carbon neutrality. China has incorporated peak carbon and carbon neutrality into overall social and economic development and moved faster to establish green and low-carbon work models and lifestyles, in order to inject impetus into high-quality green development.
1. Accelerated Low-Carbon Industrial Development
China has coordinated innovation and integrated development in traditional and emerging industries, optimized and upgraded the industrial structure, and advanced the development of green and low-carbon industries. Industries have witnessed continuing green and low-carbon development.
In-depth green transition of traditional industries. China no longer approves energy-intensive projects with high emissions and outdated technology. It is continuing to update binding standards for Environmental Protection, energy efficiency, water efficiency, and carbon emission in key industries, and decommissioning outdated production capacity in accordance with relevant laws and regulations. China is shifting key industries towards green and low-carbon development and has continued to establish benchmarks in green manufacturing. It is rolling out the substitution of clean energy, supporting the establishment of zero-carbon emission industrial parks in areas where conditions permit, constructing eco-friendly industrial parks, and accelerating the substitution of low-carbon materials and the use of renewable resources. In 2024, China's output of recycled nonferrous metals reached 19.15 million tonnes — the largest in the world for the 15th consecutive year — and one in every four tonnes of electrolytic aluminum was produced using green electricity.
Opportunities for green and low-carbon industrial development constantly strengthened. China continues to create growth points for the green and low-carbon economy. The proportion of green and low-carbon industries has continued to grow in China's economic aggregate. China has established the world's largest and most complete industrial chains of clean energy, and the "New trio" of new energy vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products has become a new calling card for Chinese manufacturing. In 2024, new industries and new business forms and models, dubbed the "New trio" economy, accounted for over 18 percent of China's GDP, and the added value of high-tech manufacturing represented 16.3 percent of the contribution of all industrial enterprises of designated size (enterprises with an annual revenue of RMB20 million and above), an increase of 1.2 percentage points compared with 2020.
Further coordinated progress of digital and green development. China is actively leveraging the positive role of digital development in increasing resource efficiency and environmental benefits, and expanding the application of artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing in power systems, industrial and agricultural production, transport, and building construction and operation. China is promoting the green and low-carbon development of data centers by coordinating the development of large-scale wind and photovoltaic power bases and national data hubs, and increasing the proportion of green electricity usage in data centers. A total of 246 data centers have been recognized as national green data centers, with green electricity accounting for more than half of the electricity used.
2. Faster Improvement in Clean and Low-Carbon Transport
China is boosting the development of low-carbon transport vehicles and equipment, progressively optimizing its transport structure, and accelerating its efforts to build a comprehensive modern transport system that is safe, convenient, efficient, green and economical.
Promoting low-carbon transport. China leads the world in the scale and speed of development of new energy vehicles. During the period from January to September 2025, the penetration rate of new energy passenger vehicles in the domestic market reached 52.2 percent, ranking top among major economies. China leads the world in the electrification of railways, with the electrification rate reaching 76.2 percent in 2024. China has promoted clean power in ships and aircraft. By 2024, fuel consumption per tonne/km of the civil aviation transport fleet had dropped by 20.5 percent compared to the 2005 baseline. China has moved further in the use of shore power for key anchored ships in key areas and on key routes. Over 90 percent of specialized berths in China's major ports have access to shore power. China's civil aviation airports lead the world in electrification. By the end of July 2025, electric vehicles accounted for 32 percent of all vehicles in China's civil aviation airports.
Panel 1 Development of China's New Energy Vehicles
In the last decade, China has taken advantage of electric and smart vehicles to establish a complete industrial system for new energy vehicles. Committed to innovative development, China has sped up scientific and technological research and development and made breakthroughs in innovative charging technologies, high-performance powertrain technologies, and high-voltage charging technologies. Engaging in mutually beneficial cooperation, China has seen more and more automobile enterprises around the world become an active part of China's new energy vehicle industrial chain and embrace a faster transition towards electric and smart vehicles.
China has become the world's largest market for new energy vehicles. By the end of June 2025, there were 36.89 million new energy vehicles in China, accounting for 10.27 percent of the total vehicle count. The thriving development of China's new energy vehicle industry supports both the country's green and low-carbon development and the demand of global consumers for high-quality new energy vehicles. In 2024, China sold its new energy vehicles to over 180 countries, contributing to a global reduction of carbon emissions by over 50 million tonnes.
China has made a significant contribution to the global response to climate change.
Progressive adjustment and upgrading of the transport structure. China has continued to improve its railway, highway and waterway networks and promoted the rational division of work and effective connection between various modes of transport. China supports a multimodal transportation system that uses a single bill of lading and eliminates the need for container changes, and is continuing to increase the proportion of railway and waterway freight transport. In 2024, the total turnover of rail freight increased by 17.5 percent, and water freight by 33.6 percent, compared with the end of the 13th Five-year Plan period (2016-2020), and the green transfer of coal and iron ore (by railway, waterway, enclosed belt conveyor, and new energy vehicle) at major coastal ports reached 88.4 percent.
Consistent upgrading of transport infrastructure for green development. China has upgraded its transport infrastructure for green development by promoting the construction of green highways, airways and waterways, strengthening the green and smart development of newly built stations, airports and ports, and improving new energy transport infrastructure. China has established the world's largest charging network, leading in the number of charging facilities, compatibility with vehicle models, and area of coverage. By the end of August 2025, the total number of charging facilities for electric vehicles in China had reached nearly 17.35 million, a tenfold increase over a period of five years. China has emphasized the strategy of giving priority to public transport in urban areas and has accelerated the building of a green transport system. By the end of June 2025, China led the world in urban rail transit, with 330 lines in operation over a total track length of more than 11,000 km.
3. Higher-Quality Green and Low-Carbon Development in Urban and Rural Areas
China has sped up the transition of development models in urban and rural areas and achieved a consistent improvement in quality in both green and low-carbon development and the people's living environment.
Accelerated transition to low-carbon development in urban and rural planning. China capitalizes on and promotes the guiding role of green and low-carbon development throughout planning, construction and administration. It is steering the ongoing urban renewal drive to include the restoration of the urban ecosystem. China promotes green construction, the development of prefabricated buildings, and the application of green building materials. In 2024, the floor space of new prefabricated building projects under construction reached 672 million sq m, accounting for over 30 percent of all new buildings. By the end of June 2025, the number of products with a green building materials certificate exceeded 10,000. Efforts have been made to strengthen cities' climate resilience, improve city ecosystems, and reserve sufficient river and lake eco-spaces and spaces for flood control and drainage. China has carried out demonstration projects to build 90 "sponge cities" and 39 pilot climate-adaptive cities. As of the end of 2024, the green coverage of built-up urban areas was 43.49 percent, and the per capita area of park greenery in urban areas was 15.91 sq m.
Substantive increase in energy efficiency of buildings. China has continued to raise standards and requirements for the energy efficiency of buildings, develop green buildings, and advance the energy-saving retrofit of existing buildings. In 2024, the floor space of China's new green buildings accounted for almost 98 percent of all newly constructed buildings in urban areas. During the 14th Five-year Plan period (2021-2025), existing urban buildings underwent energy-saving retrofit, and the energy efficiency of public buildings increased by 20 percent after the retrofit. By the end of 2024, the floor space of energy-saving buildings accounted for more than 66 percent of all existing urban buildings.
Further use of clean and low-carbon energy in buildings. In order to reduce carbon emissions in the construction sector, China continues to increase the proportion of electricity in buildings' energy consumption, promote the integrated application of photovoltaic power in buildings based on local conditions, and advance the use of heat pumps, biomass, and geothermal and solar energy for clean heating. In 2024, electricity consumption accounted for over 55 percent of China's total building energy consumption. China has advanced clean energy heating in northern regions, with more than 40 million rural households retrofitted for clean heating systems. By the end of 2024, the proportion of clean energy heating in northern China had reached 83 percent, nearly 20 percentage points higher than in 2020.
- Green and Low-Carbon Lifestyles Gaining Popularity
China has carried out an in-depth nationwide green and low-carbon campaign. Simple, moderate, green, low-carbon and healthy lifestyles have become a conscious choice for more and more people.
Moving faster to create green and low-carbon lifestyles. China advocates green and low-carbon lifestyles, guiding and encouraging the wide adoption of the Code of Conduct for Environmental Protection to promote green living. The share of green and low-carbon transport and travel continues to increase. An average of 200 million people now travel by public transport every day, with about 25 million using shared bikes. China has implemented full household waste sorting. By the end of 2024, 98.5 percent of residential compounds in cities at prefectural level and above had waste sorting facilities. China is promoting and exploring the carbon inclusion mechanism, with 27 provincial-level administrative units having launched policies related to green travel, power saving, recycling of used items, and waste sorting.
Expanded green and low-carbon consumption. China continues to increase the supply and upgrade the quality of green and low-carbon products, and incentivizes consumer goods trade-in. The country takes full advantage of green and low-carbon consumption both in driving economic growth and in reducing carbon emissions. It encourages the use of green and low-carbon products and curbs extravagance and excessive consumption, implementing the Clear Your Plate campaign to prevent food waste, and guiding the public to conserve water and electricity and reduce the use of disposable products.
IV. Effective Implementation of Major Pathways to Carbon Emission Reduction
Energy conservation is key to reducing carbon emissions at source; the Circular Economy plays a crucial role in facilitating their reduction; and improving the carbon sink capacity of ecosystems is a vital path for emission reduction and carbon sequestration. China has yielded positive outcomes in its actions for saving energy, reducing carbon dioxide emissions, and improving efficiency; for facilitating further emission reductions through the circular economy; and for consolidating and improving carbon sink capacity.
1. Advancing Energy Saving, Carbon Reduction, and Efficiency Improvement Actions
China is committed to prioritizing energy conservation by transforming its energy consumption patterns to build an energy-saving society, as evidenced by a total of 11.6 percent decrease in energy consumption per unit of GDP in the first four years of the 14th Five-year Plan period after deducting energy used as raw materials and non-fossil energy consumption.
Significant improvement in energy conservation management. China continues to improve its laws, regulations, and standards on energy saving as it works towards forming a mature and efficient management system. It has established and improved the framework of energy-saving checks on fixed-asset investment projects. Since 2020, it has conducted supervision on industrial energy conservation at over 20,000 enterprises and performed diagnosis on industrial energy conservation and carbon reduction at over 12,000 enterprises and industrial parks. Clear requirements have been set for energy conservation management of key industries and enterprises, and meticulous and targeted energy-saving management of major energy consumers has been strengthened. Additionally, the country has applied market-oriented mechanisms such as energy performance contracting to motivate businesses.
Currently, the total turnover of the energy conservation service industry has exceeded RMB500 billion, with new investment in energy performance contracting surpassing RMB170 billion in 2024.
Full implementation of key projects for saving energy and reducing carbon emissions. China is implementing energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformations in key industries to upgrade energy consumption management and unlock the potential for systematically conserving energy and reducing carbon emissions. The implementation of energy conservation and carbon reduction projects in industrial parks has enabled upgrades and cascade utilization of the energy system. Currently there are 491 national-level green industrial parks in China; their energy consumption per unit of industrial added value has dropped to two-thirds of China's average level.
Breakthroughs in energy saving and efficiency improvement of key equipment. China is scaling up the deployment and application of advanced and high-efficiency energy-saving equipment. Through large-scale equipment renewal, over 20 million units (sets) of equipment in key sectors were upgraded in 2024, saving energy equivalent to 25 million tonnes of standard coal. Energy efficiency standards have been comprehensively upgraded for products with a focus on electric motors, industrial fans, pumps, compressors, transformers, heat exchangers, boilers, among others. By the end of 2024, the energy efficiency labeling system had covered all key energy-using products and equipment across 44 categories in five major energy-consuming sectors.
Panel 2 Critical Battle to Conserve Energy and Reduce Carbon Emissions in Coal-Fired Boilers
Boilers are highly energy-intensive but essential for power, heat supply, petrochemical and chemical, and other industries as well as in the residential sector. To improve their energy efficiency, China has initiated a comprehensive, long-term project to conserve energy and reduce emissions of coal-fired boilers based on a higher standard. This project phases out outdated coal-fired boilers in favor of alternatives such as electricity, natural gas, or industrial waste heat, and upgrades existing boilers that fail to meet ultra-low emission requirements. As a result, the average operating thermal efficiency of industrial boilers in China has increased by 4.2 percentage points since 2021, contributing to an accumulated carbon emission reduction of over 300 million tonnes.
2. Significantly Reducing Carbon Emissions Through the Circular Economy
China continues to develop its circular economy to make more efficient use of resources, coordinating reductions in both resource consumption and carbon emissions.
Optimization of waste recycling management system. China has introduced targeted policies and measures on the management of waste from various sources and continued to develop its waste recycling system to realize precise management and effective recycling. In the industrial sector, measures have been taken to better oversee the production and disposal of general industrial solid waste, and further progress has been made in the category-specific collection and storage of industrial waste. In the agricultural sector, a mechanism to collect and dispose of agricultural waste such as livestock and poultry waste and crop straw has been established and streamlined, and the recycling of used agricultural items has seen significant improvement. In people's daily life, a three-tier recycling network comprising collection points, stations, and centers has been developed to standardize the recycling of waste and used items. By the end of 2024, there were approximately 150,000 collection points and about 1,800 large-scale sorting centers of various types nationwide.
Steady improvement in waste utilization. China has applied tailored policies for different forms of waste to facilitate the standardized, large-scale and clean use of renewable resources. To date, some 100 recycling centers have been built across the country for the comprehensive utilization of bulk solid waste. In 2024, comprehensive utilization rate of the seven types of bulk solid waste, including coal gangue, coal ash, and mine tailings, reached 59 percent, an increase of 3 percentage points compared with 2020. The processing of renewable resources and the promotion and application of their products continue to be encouraged and strengthened throughout the country. In 2024, more than 400 million tonnes of major renewable resources were reused, including waste iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, paper, rubber, and glass. A total of 8.46 million scrap vehicles and 630,000 tonnes of waste household appliances were recycled in a standardized manner, representing year-on-year increases of 64 percent and 20 percent, respectively.
China also provides strong support for its remanufacturing industry, which achieved an output value exceeding RMB200 billion in 2024 alone.
Panel 3 Exploration and Practices in Plastic Waste Recycling
Local governments across China have explored various ways to recycle waste plastic, achieving remarkable results and contributing significantly to the global effort in this regard. One successful example is Zhejiang's pioneering Blue Circle Project. It adopts a model of "government guidance + market operation" to motivate coastal residents to collect marine plastic waste, and applies the technologies of blockchain and Internet of Things to realize whole-process visual traceability covering collection, recycling, remanufacturing and resale. This project continues to make a vital contribution to the recycling of marine plastic waste and won the United Nations' 2023 Champions of the Earth Award.
3. Improving Natural Ecosystems' Carbon Sink Capacity
By staying committed to systems thinking, China ensures integrated conservation and management of mountains, waters, forests, farmlands, grasslands, and deserts, which helps to boost the carbon sink capacity of ecosystems. It is the first country to realize zero net land degradation, and its desertified and sandified areas are both shrinking, contributing to approximately one-fourth of the world's newly added green areas over the past two decades.
Optimized pattern of carbon sequestration through ecosystems. China takes rigorous measures to protect the space of natural ecosystems and reduce the occupation of these areas by human activities. It has established a nationwide unified territorial space planning system that is science-based, efficient, and built upon clearly defined powers and responsibilities. This system draws three red lines for arable land and permanent basic cropland, eco-environmental protection, and boundaries for urban development, and setting protection lines for all types of sea areas. The protected areas system includes mainly national parks, supported by nature reserves and supplemented by natural parks. As part of China's ecosystem-protection efforts, the first five national parks have been built, along with approximately 10,000 protected areas of various levels and types, covering some 18 percent of the country's land area. These actions have enhanced the stability and service functions of ecosystems.
Steady increase in the carbon sink capacity of ecosystems facilitated by human interventions. A number of major projects for protecting and restoring key ecosystems have been launched across China, including greening programs to increase the country's total volume of forest and grassland and leverage the critical function of forest carbon sinks. Today, China has achieved the highest growth in forest coverage in the world, and boasts the largest area of man-made forests. In 2024, forests covered 25.09 percent of China's territory, with a forest stock of over 20.9 billion cu m, while grassland vegetation coverage reached 50.52 percent.
China's forests and grasslands now absorb and store over 1.2 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent annually. The country is also focusing on improving aquatic environments, water resources, and aquatic ecosystems by strengthening
comprehensive ecological governance of rivers, lakes and oceans. By the end of 2024, its wetland area totaled over 53.3 million hectares, ranking first in Asia and fourth globally.
Panel 4 Desertification Control in Taklimakan Desert — A Chinese Green Miracle
Situated in the center of the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang, the Taklimakan Desert is China's largest desert and the world's second largest shifting sand desert. The annual precipitation in this area is approximately 50 mm, while evaporation exceeds 2,500 mm, leading to an average of 145.6 dust storm days per year, which severely impacts people's production and livelihoods.
To combat this, China is dedicated to blocking the spread of sand from the desert fringe by expanding forestry and grasslands where suitable and leaving natural wastelands untouched. It has employed engineering-based, biological and photovoltaic desertification controls to build the world's largest encircling desert ecological barrier, with a total length of 3,046 km. Afforestation over the years has added nearly 4.7 million hectares of green areas. These efforts have enhanced China's biological carbon sink potential and created a new miracle in desertification control.
Steady progress of carbon reduction and sequestration in agriculture. China pursues green, low-carbon and circular agriculture. In 2024, the comprehensive utilization rates of crop straw and livestock and poultry waste were around 88 percent and 80 percent, respectively. It supports the development of low-carbon agricultural models, including agrivoltaic farming and "photovoltaics + facility agriculture", and promotes efficient fertilization techniques and the replacement of chemical fertilizers with organic ones, aiming to control greenhouse gas emissions from crop production at a reasonable level. The country has also advanced energy conservation and carbon reduction in agricultural machinery through tailored actions to develop compound, efficient, and new energy-powered equipment while phasing out outdated equipment with high energy consumption, high emissions, and low safety performance. The conservation project of chernozem soil remains ongoing, efforts to restore degraded arable land have been intensified, protection-oriented farming continues to be practiced, the carbon sink capacity of farmland soil has been improved, and planting adaptability has been enhanced nationwide. Additionally, ecological fisheries are being developed in large water bodies to cultivate the industry's carbon sink potential.