Interpretation | Twenty-two key tasks and policy measures in four areas to comprehensively promote the green transformation of consumption in key sectors

The "Implementation Plan for Promoting Green Consumption" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") was recently released to the public. The Plan was jointly researched and formulated by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the Central Direct Management Bureau, and other relevant departments.

The Plan proposes that by 2025, the concept of green consumption will be deeply ingrained in people's minds, luxury waste will be effectively curbed, the market share of green and low-carbon products will significantly increase, the green transformation of consumption in key areas will achieve obvious results, green consumption methods will be widely promoted, and a consumption system of green, low-carbon, and circular development will be initially formed.

By 2030, green consumption methods will become the conscious choice of the public, green and low-carbon products will become the market mainstream, the green and low-carbon development model of consumption in key areas will be basically formed, and the institutional policy system and mechanisms for green consumption will be basically sound.

"The Plan is an organically connected whole. Fully promoting the green transformation of consumption in key areas is crucial. Technology and services, institutional guarantees, and incentive and restraint mechanisms are important supports, together forming a complete institutional policy system for promoting green consumption now and in the future," said Chang Tiewei, Deputy Director of the Employment, Income Distribution and Consumption Department of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Accelerate the improvement of green food consumption levels and strengthen the whole-chain grain saving and loss reduction.

Consumption is the primary driving force of China's economic growth. Green consumption is an important direction and new growth point for promoting high-quality consumption development.

In recent years, China has vigorously guided green consumption, and the concept of green consumption is gradually spreading throughout society. So far, more than 500 green shopping malls have been established nationwide. In the first three quarters of 2021, the number of merchants offering small portion dishes on food delivery platforms increased by 25.4% year-on-year, and over 100 million orders chose takeout without utensils. During last year's "Double 11" shopping festival, sales of energy-saving electric fans and energy-saving central air conditioners increased by 274.1% and 118.1% year-on-year, respectively.

Especially, the development of green consumption in automobiles has been rapid. In 2021, sales of new energy vehicles in China reached 3.521 million units, a year-on-year increase of 1.6 times, with the proportion of new car sales rising to 13.4%, up 8 percentage points year-on-year. The stock of new energy vehicles accounts for 2.6% of the total number of vehicles in China and about half of the global new energy vehicle stock. According to relevant institutions' estimates, compared with traditional fuel passenger cars, existing new energy passenger cars reduce carbon emissions by about 15 million tons annually during use.

At the same time, some areas still have phenomena of waste and unreasonable consumption, green consumption demand still needs to be stimulated and released, and the long-term mechanism for promoting green consumption needs to be accelerated. "The leverage effect of green consumption on the green and low-carbon transformation of supply production, its role in enhancing China's super-large market advantage and attractiveness, and its support for high-quality economic development all need to be further strengthened," said Chang Tiewei.

The Plan systematically designs an institutional policy system to promote green consumption, including 22 key tasks and policy measures in 4 aspects. Accelerating the improvement of green food consumption levels is the first key task.

"The Plan regards grain saving and anti-food waste as important content of green consumption, and the first key task deployed is 'accelerate the improvement of green food consumption levels.' It proposes strengthening whole-chain grain saving and loss reduction, clarifying responsibility requirements for various consumption entities, encouraging green consumption, opposing luxury waste, and advocating a simple, moderate, green, and low-carbon lifestyle," said Liu Qiong, Deputy Director of the Resource Conservation and Environmental Protection Department of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Energy-saving and environmental protection requirements are incorporated into the renovation of old residential communities to stimulate the potential of green electricity consumption across society.

In actively promoting green residential consumption, the Plan proposes promoting the large-scale development of green buildings and low-carbon buildings, incorporating energy-saving and environmental protection requirements into the renovation of old residential communities, and advancing the construction and renovation of clean heating facilities according to local conditions. It fully promotes green and low-carbon building materials, encourages the recycling of building materials, and supports qualified regions to carry out green and low-carbon building material campaigns in rural areas. It vigorously develops green home decoration, continuously promotes clean heating in rural areas, improves rural energy electrification levels, and accelerates the application of renewable energy such as biomass and solar energy in rural life.

In vigorously developing green transportation consumption, the Plan proposes vigorously promoting new energy vehicles, gradually removing purchase restrictions on new energy vehicles in various places, promoting the implementation of support policies such as exemption from traffic restrictions and road rights, strengthening the construction of supporting infrastructure such as charging and swapping stations, new energy storage, and hydrogen refueling, and actively promoting the development of LNG for vehicles and ships. It vigorously promotes the electrification of public sector vehicles, increasing the application proportion of new energy vehicles in urban public transport, taxis (including ride-hailing cars), sanitation, urban logistics distribution, postal express, civil aviation airports, and party and government agencies' official vehicles.

The Plan also proposes further stimulating the potential of green electricity consumption across society. It implements the policy that newly added renewable energy and raw material energy use are not included in the total energy consumption control requirements, coordinates the promotion of green electricity trading and green certificate trading, strengthens rigid constraints on high energy-consuming enterprises' use of green electricity, and localities may set minimum proportions of green electricity consumption in the electricity consumption of high energy-consuming enterprises according to actual conditions. It establishes a mechanism linking green electricity trading with renewable energy consumption responsibility weights, allowing market users to fulfill renewable energy consumption responsibility weights by purchasing green electricity or green certificates.

Public institutions vigorously promote green consumption transformation and improve time-of-use electricity pricing policies.

　　Public institutions refer to national agencies, public institutions, and organizations that use fiscal funds wholly or partially, involving agencies, schools, hospitals, research institutes, cultural and sports venues, etc. There are about 1.586 million public institutions nationwide, with many types, large numbers, and many personnel, and many units directly serve the public.

　　"Taking the lead in vigorously promoting green consumption transformation in public institutions can not only help cadres and staff establish the concept of simple, moderate, green, and low-carbon green consumption, reduce operating costs, but also drive family members, friends, and others around them to actively practice green consumption concepts, playing an important exemplary and leading role in promoting green consumption actions throughout society," said Zhu Chengyi, Director of the Energy Conservation Management Department of Public Institutions of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

　　Zhu Chengyi stated that according to the Plan's deployment, relevant departments will promote public institutions and cadres and staff to prioritize purchasing and using new energy vehicles, appropriately increase the proportion of new energy vehicle applications in the official vehicle field of party and government agencies, strengthen the provision of electric vehicle charging infrastructure in newly built and existing parking lots within public institutions, comprehensively promote the creation of energy-saving agencies, and strive to have more than 80% of county-level and above party and government agencies become energy-saving agencies by the end of 2025.

　　To promote green consumption, the Plan proposes improving incentive and restraint policies for green consumption, increasing the proportion of green and low-carbon products in government procurement, encouraging qualified regions to provide appropriate subsidies or loan interest discounts for consumer goods such as smart home appliances and green building materials, further improving the tiered pricing system for residential water, electricity, and gas use, improving time-of-use electricity pricing policies to effectively widen peak-valley price differences and fluctuations, guiding users to shift peak energy storage and electricity use, gradually expanding the cost gradient between new energy vehicles and traditional fuel vehicles, establishing and improving the urban household waste treatment charging system, and gradually implementing classified pricing and metered charging.