Relevant officials from the National Development and Reform Commission answer reporters' questions on the "Notice on Carrying Out Zero-Carbon Park Construction"

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the National Energy Administration issued the "Notice on Carrying out Zero-Carbon Park Construction" (NDRC Environmental Resources [2025] No. 910, hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"). Relevant officials from the National Development and Reform Commission accepted interviews regarding the "Notice" and answered reporters' questions.

  Q: What is the background and significance of carrying out zero-carbon park construction?

  A: Currently, China has entered a critical period for achieving the carbon peak target and accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. Although positive progress and significant results have been made in the "dual carbon" work over the past five years, challenges remain, such as increased pressure on new energy consumption, difficulties in deep decarbonization of high energy-consuming industries, and limitations in the promotion and application of low-carbon, zero-carbon, and negative-carbon technologies. It is urgent to achieve breakthroughs through policy innovation, technological innovation, and model innovation.

  A zero-carbon park refers to a park that reduces carbon dioxide emissions from production and living activities within the park to a "near-zero" level through planning, design, technology, management, etc., and has the conditions to further achieve "net zero." The 2024 Central Economic Work Conference called for "establishing a batch of zero-carbon parks," and the 2025 Government Work Report made clear deployments again. This is the latest deployment by the Party Central Committee and the State Council on the "dual carbon" work and an important lever to deepen green transformation.

  Overall, building zero-carbon parks has five major significances: First, accelerating the green transformation of energy. To achieve "zero carbon," parks must comprehensively adopt various methods such as direct supply of green electricity, scientific allocation of regulatory resources, and strengthening demand-side management to significantly increase the proportion of non-fossil energy consumption. This will provide new models and practices for new energy supply and consumption. Second, guiding deep decarbonization of industries. Using zero-carbon parks as carriers, explore the "green to make green" model of manufacturing green products with green energy, guide traditional industries to explore deep decarbonization paths, and empower emerging industries for green, low-carbon, and high-quality development. Third, promoting regional coordinated development. Based on regional industrial development and comparative advantages of resource endowments, plan and build a batch of zero-carbon parks, guide high energy-consuming industries to orderly transfer and cluster in parks with resource support, energy security, and environmental capacity, which is conducive to forming reasonable division of labor and virtuous cycles in related industries. Fourth, adapting to green trade rules. Currently, carbon emission requirements are gradually integrated into international trade rules and supply chain systems. Zero-carbon parks have traceable energy supply systems and full-process carbon footprint management systems, which can help enterprises significantly reduce product carbon footprints and enhance "green competitiveness." Fifth, creating zero-carbon demonstration models. Building zero-carbon parks not only directly contributes to carbon reduction but, more importantly, through the practice of "zero-carbon cells" at the park level, accumulates experience, explores paths, and creates models for building a "zero-carbon society" under the carbon neutrality goal.

  Q: What are the key tasks involved in building zero-carbon parks?

  A: Building zero-carbon parks is a highly innovative task that requires systematic planning and coordinated promotion. The "Notice" proposes eight key tasks: First, accelerate the transformation of park energy use structure, develop green electricity direct connection, nearby access to new energy incremental distribution networks, and other green power direct supply modes according to local conditions, and promote the clean and low-carbon transformation of park heating systems. Second, vigorously promote energy saving and carbon reduction in parks, establish and improve energy use and carbon emission management systems, implement energy-saving and carbon-reduction renovations and equipment updates, and encourage enterprises to build ultra-efficient factories and zero-carbon factories. Third, adjust and optimize the park industrial structure, encourage parks to accelerate their own industrial structure optimization and adjustment, develop emerging industries with low energy consumption, low pollution, and high added value, explore the "green to make green" model, and support the orderly transfer and clustering of high energy-consuming industries. Fourth, strengthen resource conservation and intensive use in parks, improve resource intensive utilization levels, establish waste recycling networks, and enhance resource utilization of various wastes. Fifth, improve and upgrade park infrastructure, systematically promote the construction and renovation of power, heat, gas, hydrogen, water supply and drainage, pollution control, and other infrastructure, and improve green building and green transportation infrastructure in parks. Sixth, strengthen the application of advanced and applicable technologies, support parks in exploring mechanisms for deep integration of green low-carbon technology R&D and industrial development, and create demonstration application scenarios around advanced applicable low-carbon, zero-carbon, and negative-carbon technologies. Seventh, enhance park energy and carbon management capabilities, build park energy and carbon management platforms, and strengthen energy load monitoring, forecasting, and scheduling capabilities. Eighth, support parks in strengthening reform and innovation, support various entities such as governments, parks, park enterprises, grid companies, and integrated energy service providers to participate in zero-carbon park construction, and explore new models and mechanisms.

  Q: What conditions are needed to build zero-carbon parks? How is "zero carbon" evaluated?

  A: The "Notice" clarifies that building zero-carbon parks requires meeting the following four basic conditions: First, the construction entity should be a provincial-level or above development zone, and may be extended to newly built provincial emerging industrial parks or high-tech parks in recent years as appropriate; second, the construction scope can be the entire park or a "park within a park" with clear boundaries; third, the park should have a certain foundation in energy consumption and carbon emission statistics, accounting, measurement, and monitoring; fourth, the park should not have had major safety, environmental accidents, or other adverse social impact events within three years.

  China has numerous parks with significant differences in scale, industrial structure, and energy use characteristics, making it difficult to unify the "zero carbon/near zero carbon" standard. The "Notice" innovatively proposes "carbon emissions per unit energy consumption" (i.e., the amount of carbon dioxide emitted per ton of standard coal consumed by various energy types within the park) as the core indicator for evaluating zero-carbon parks, guiding parks to strive to achieve "near zero" carbon emissions while ensuring enterprise development and energy use. In addition to the core indicator, the "Notice" also sets five guiding indicators: proportion of clean energy consumption, unit energy consumption of park enterprise products, comprehensive utilization rate of industrial solid waste, comprehensive utilization rate of residual heat, cold, and pressure, and reuse rate of industrial water, proposing requirements from the perspectives of energy structure, circular economy, and resource conservation.

  Q: How will the state support zero-carbon park construction?

  A: The support measures proposed in the "Notice" can be summarized into three aspects: First, financial support. Existing funding channels will be coordinated to support zero-carbon park construction, encouraging regions to provide financial support for zero-carbon park construction, and encouraging policy banks to provide medium- and long-term credit support for qualified projects. At the same time, support is given to qualified enterprises to issue bonds for zero-carbon park construction. Second, service support. Support parks in introducing external talents, technologies, and professional institutions through multiple channels to serve enterprises in energy-saving and carbon-reduction renovations, carbon emission accounting and management, product carbon footprint certification, etc. Third, factor support. Strengthen energy use factor guarantees, innovate energy-saving review and carbon emission evaluation models for fixed asset investment projects within zero-carbon parks, and explore regional approval or project filing implementation. Strengthen land and sea use factor guarantees for new parks, new energy power sources, power supply facilities, etc.

  Q: How will the next steps be organized and implemented?

  Answer: At the national level, the National Development and Reform Commission will coordinate the promotion of zero-carbon park construction, following the overall plan of "planning a batch, building a batch, operating a batch," and will determine the first batch of national-level zero-carbon parks, providing active support in pilot exploration, project construction, and funding arrangements. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will guide regions to advance the low-carbon transformation of industrial parks and promote the construction of zero-carbon parks in industrial parks that meet the conditions. The National Energy Administration will guide regions to strengthen the construction and reform innovation of green energy supply systems for zero-carbon parks, promoting changes in park energy supply and consumption models. At the local level, regions must deeply understand the significant importance of zero-carbon park construction. Local development and reform commissions should collaborate with local industry, information technology, and energy authorities to organize and recommend parks that are qualified and willing to participate in national-level zero-carbon park construction, and may also carry out provincial-level zero-carbon park construction based on local conditions. At the park level, based on their own resource endowments and industrial characteristics, parks should scientifically demonstrate, deeply analyze, and comprehensively calculate to plan the path and methods for building zero-carbon parks, ensuring that technical solutions are operable, engineering projects can be implemented, innovative measures can be carried out, and funding elements are guaranteed, firmly preventing blind decision-making, overambition, and reckless rushing.