Five departments jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Carrying Out the Construction of Zero-Carbon Factories."

Recently, five departments—the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and the National Energy Administration—jointly issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Construction of Zero-Carbon Factories" (MIIT Joint [2026] No. 13, hereinafter referred to as the "Guiding Opinions"). These opinions aim to tap deeply into the potential for energy conservation and carbon reduction in the industrial and information technology sectors, drive carbon reduction and efficiency improvements in key industrial fields, promote a green and low-carbon transformation, and foster the development of new-quality productivity.

The “Suggestions of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development” proposes “building zero-carbon factories and industrial parks.” The construction of zero-carbon factories refers to a continuous process of reducing carbon dioxide emissions within factory premises through emission-reduction measures such as technological innovation, structural adjustments, and management optimization, gradually moving toward near-zero emissions. Guiding industrial enterprises to pilot the construction of zero-carbon factories will drive decarbonization, enhance efficiency, and promote a green and low-carbon transformation across the industry. This is of great significance for fostering and developing new quality productivity tailored to local conditions, better balancing high-quality development with high-level protection, and supporting the achievement of the goals of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality.

　　The “Guiding Opinions” outline four key principles for building zero-carbon factories: tailored approaches based on industry characteristics and systematic advancement; innovation-driven development and technology empowerment; minimizing emissions wherever possible while continuously improving performance; and unified standards, openness, and transparency. A phased, stepwise cultivation approach will be implemented, with priority given to industries that have an urgent need for decarbonization, rely heavily on electricity for energy consumption, and face relatively lower decarbonization challenges. These industries will serve as pilot sites for gradually refining relevant planning and design, energy supply systems, process technologies, management and operational practices, and business models. Once conditions are ripe, the approach will be progressively extended to industries with high carbon intensity and greater decarbonization difficulties. Starting in 2026, a group of zero-carbon factories will be selected to serve as leading examples. By 2027, a number of zero-carbon factories will be cultivated and built across sectors including automobiles, lithium batteries, photovoltaics, electronic appliances, light industry, machinery, and computing infrastructure. By 2030, the initiative will gradually expand to include industries such as steel, nonferrous metals, petrochemicals, building materials, and textiles, exploring new pathways for decarbonizing traditionally high-energy-consuming industries.

　　The “Guiding Opinions” provide a detailed introduction to the pathway for building zero-carbon factories. One is: Improve the carbon emission accounting and management system to achieve scientific carbon accounting. Second is Accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation of the energy consumption structure, enhance the utilization of renewable energy and the level of electrification, and achieve carbon reduction at the source. Third is Improve energy efficiency, accelerate technological upgrades and equipment modernization, and achieve decarbonization of processes. Fourth is Conduct carbon footprint analysis for key products, driving the implementation of energy-saving and carbon-reduction measures throughout the upstream and downstream sectors of the entire industrial chain, and achieving synergistic carbon reduction. Five is Enhance digitalization and intelligentization levels, implement precise measurement and refined management of energy consumption and carbon emission data, and achieve smart carbon control. Six is Implement carbon offsetting and information disclosure to achieve zero carbon emissions and continuously improve performance.

　　The issuance of the “Guiding Opinions” is of great significance for promoting technological transformation and optimizing and restructuring production methods in industrial enterprises, substantially reducing carbon emissions, strengthening green manufacturing, and developing green productivity.

Notice on Issuing the “Guiding Opinions on Carrying Out the Construction of Zero-Carbon Factories”

MIIT Joint Notice [2026] No. 13

　　The industrial and information technology authorities, development and reform commissions, ecological environment authorities, state-owned assets supervision and administration commissions, and energy authorities of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government, cities under separate planning, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps; as well as relevant central enterprises:

　　To uphold the guiding principles of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s Thought on Ecological Civilization, fully carry out the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and successive plenary sessions of the 20th Central Committee, and put into practice the “Action Plan for Green and Low-Carbon Development of the Manufacturing Sector (2025–2027)” issued by the General Office of the State Council, we will deeply tap into the potential for energy conservation and carbon reduction in the industrial and information technology sectors, drive carbon reduction and efficiency enhancement as well as green and low-carbon transformation in key industrial sectors, and foster the development of new-quality productive forces. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council, and the National Energy Administration have jointly researched and formulated the “Guiding Opinions on Launching the Construction of Zero-Carbon Factories.” These opinions are now being circulated to you. Please combine them with your actual circumstances and earnestly implement them.

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

National Development and Reform Commission

Ministry of Ecology and Environment

State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council

National Energy Administration

January 14, 2026

Guiding Opinions on Carrying Out the Construction of Zero-Carbon Factories

　　The construction of zero-carbon factories refers to a process in which carbon dioxide emissions within factory premises are continuously reduced and gradually brought close to zero through emission-reduction measures such as technological innovation, structural adjustments, and management optimization. Implementing the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, guiding industrial enterprises to pilot the construction of zero-carbon factories, and driving the industry toward carbon reduction, efficiency enhancement, and green, low-carbon transformation are of great significance for fostering and developing new-quality productive forces tailored to local conditions, better balancing high-quality development with high-level protection, and supporting the achievement of the goals of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality.

　　 I. General Requirements

　　We will unswervingly adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly implement Xi Jinping’s Thought on Ecological Civilization, fully carry out the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and all subsequent plenary sessions of the 20th Central Committee, and earnestly implement the arrangements made at the National Conference on Promoting New Industrialization. Taking the upgrading and efficiency enhancement of the entire industrial chain and the green and low-carbon transformation as the main focus, we will uphold industry-specific policies, innovation-driven development, and a steady and orderly approach. We will strengthen policy guidance, standard-setting, and market-driven forces, accelerate the deep integration of green energy and modern manufacturing, speed up the deep integration of technological innovation and industrial innovation, and promote the deep integration of greening and intelligentization. This will drive transformative changes in production technologies and optimize and restructure production methods within industrial enterprises, significantly reduce carbon emissions, bolster green manufacturing, develop green productivity, and build new advantages for high-quality industrial development.

　　The construction of zero-carbon factories follows these principles:

　　 Implement measures tailored to specific industries and promote them systematically. Based on the region’s actual conditions and industry characteristics, we will scientifically plan every stage of the entire process—including energy, resources, production, operations, and management—to foster synergy across the upstream and downstream segments of the industrial chain. We will continuously enhance the efficiency of energy and resource utilization, steadily and orderly advance the low-carbon transformation and upgrading, and achieve intelligent, green, and integrated development.

　　 Innovation-driven, technology-enabled. Accelerate the systematic integration and coupled application of clean energy technologies, low-carbon technologies, digital technologies, and more. Promote research and development breakthroughs in foundational, cutting-edge, and disruptive technologies, as well as the widespread adoption, iterative upgrades, and practical application of mature and suitable technologies. Enhance market competitiveness through technological innovation and model innovation.

　　 Reduce as much as possible and keep improving continuously. Build an energy system for factories centered on renewable energy, production processes characterized by low-carbonization, and a management and service system supported by intelligent technologies. Strengthen control over both the total amount and intensity of carbon dioxide emissions, strive to reduce emissions wherever possible, and continuously improve performance.

　　 Unified standards, open and transparent. Prepare carbon emission inventory reports in accordance with published national and industry standards for greenhouse gas emissions, as well as international standards and universally accepted methodologies, and disclose them promptly. Fully leverage digital technologies such as the Internet of Things and big data to ensure that relevant data are unified, transparent, traceable, verifiable, and comparable.

　　 II. Main Objectives

　　Implement a phased, tiered cultivation approach, prioritizing industries with urgent decarbonization needs, predominantly electricity-based energy consumption, and relatively lower decarbonization difficulties for initial exploration. Gradually refine relevant planning and design, energy supply, process technologies, management and operations, and business models. Once conditions are ripe, progressively extend the initiative to industries characterized by high carbon intensity and greater decarbonization challenges. Starting in 2026, select a group of zero-carbon factories to serve as leading benchmarks. By 2027, cultivate and build a number of zero-carbon factories across sectors including automobiles, lithium batteries, photovoltaics, electrical and electronic equipment, light industry, machinery, and computing infrastructure, and preliminarily establish an industrial ecosystem for zero-carbon factory development that encompasses energy supply, technological R&D, standard-setting, and financial support. This will effectively align with international trade rules and enhance the low-carbon competitiveness of these industries. By 2030, gradually expand zero-carbon factory development to include sectors such as steel, nonferrous metals, petrochemicals, building materials, and textiles, exploring new pathways for decarbonizing traditionally high-energy-consuming industries. Promote comprehensive service models and system solutions covering zero-carbon factory design, financing, retrofitting, and management, significantly enhancing capabilities for managing the entire product lifecycle and value chain, and achieving steady reductions in factory carbon emissions.

　　 III. Construction Path

　　 (1) Improve the carbon emission accounting and management system to achieve scientific carbon accounting. Establish a carbon dioxide emission accounting system to identify and quantify both CO₂ emissions and removals, providing accurate, timely, and traceable data support for the development of zero-carbon factories. The accounting boundary includes direct CO₂ emissions generated from the factory’s production and operational activities (such as fuel combustion and process emissions) as well as indirect emissions (including purchased electricity and heat). Enterprises are encouraged to conduct CO₂ emission accounting for key industrial products. For enterprises already included in the national carbon emissions trading market, the accounting methodology shall follow the relevant industry technical specifications of the national carbon emissions trading market. Other enterprises shall adopt the “General Principles for Accounting and Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Industrial Enterprises” (GB/T 32150) along with applicable national standards for specific sub-sectors (GB/T 32151), or internationally recognized greenhouse gas accounting standards.

　　 (2) Accelerate the green and low-carbon transformation of the energy consumption structure to achieve carbon reduction at the source. On the premise of ensuring a secure supply of energy and electricity, factories are encouraged to achieve zero-carbon supply of electricity, heat, hydrogen, and fuels. They should leverage local conditions to develop and utilize distributed photovoltaic systems, decentralized wind power, biomass power generation, and other renewable energy sources. Furthermore, they should explore direct green-power connections to increase the proportion of renewable energy used. Factories with suitable conditions are encouraged to build industrial green microgrids that integrate photovoltaic systems, wind power, waste-heat recovery, advanced energy storage technologies, and high-efficiency heat pumps, thereby enabling efficient and complementary use of multiple energy sources. We should actively promote integrated projects involving green hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol, and advance the application of clean, low-carbon hydrogen produced from industrial byproduct hydrogen and renewable energy sources. Additionally, we should popularize technologies such as electric boilers, electric kilns, electric heating systems, and ultra-low-emission biomass boilers as substitutes for coal-fired captive boilers. We should accelerate the replacement and upgrading of internal operational vehicles and machinery with new-energy alternatives, thereby enhancing the level of electrification and increasing the share of renewable energy in heating (and cooling) systems.

　　 (3) Significantly improve energy efficiency and achieve decarbonization throughout the process. Focus on systematically optimizing production processes and collaboratively promoting both energy efficiency improvements and decarbonization of process flows. Continuously carry out energy-saving and carbon-reduction diagnostics, technological upgrades, and equipment replacements, and refine energy-saving and carbon-reduction management systems. The energy consumption per unit product and per process in factories should meet or exceed the Grade 1 or advanced benchmark levels stipulated by the national mandatory energy-efficiency standards for relevant industries, as well as the benchmark energy-efficiency levels outlined in the "Energy Efficiency Benchmark and Baseline Levels for Key Industrial Sectors." Enhance the energy efficiency of general-purpose equipment—motors, transformers, air compressors, fans, pumps, and others—achieving at least Grade 1 or higher compliance with the national mandatory energy-efficiency standards for these equipment types, and meeting the advanced levels specified in the "Advanced, Energy-Saving, and Accessible Energy-Efficiency Levels for Key Energy-Consuming Products and Equipment." Furthermore, optimize management practices to ensure efficient operation of equipment. Encourage factories to engage in cutting-edge technology research and development, including new energy-saving and carbon-reduction materials, re-engineering of zero-carbon manufacturing processes, carbon dioxide capture, conversion, utilization, and storage technologies, as well as the substitution of low-carbon and zero-carbon raw materials, waste reduction, efficient recycling, and comprehensive resource utilization.

　　 (4) Conduct carbon footprint analysis for key products to drive collaborative carbon reduction across the entire industrial chain. Actively promote zero-carbon supply chain management by procuring green and low-carbon products, adopting green and low-carbon logistics practices, increasing the share of clean transportation, and driving upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain to implement energy-saving and carbon-reduction measures and collaborate on carbon reduction efforts. Encourage the adoption of relevant national standards or industry standards such as “Quantification Requirements and Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Product Carbon Footprint” (GB/T 24067), as well as group standards recommended by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other authorities, to conduct product carbon footprint analyses, identify key carbon-emission stages throughout the product’s entire life cycle, and continuously improve product carbon footprints based on the calculation results.

　　 (5) Enhance digitalization and intelligentization to achieve smart carbon control. Implement the “Guidelines for Building Digital Energy and Carbon Management Centers in Industrial Enterprises and Industrial Parks,” leveraging technologies such as the industrial internet, IoT, and big data to establish and operate digital energy and carbon management centers. This will enable precise measurement of energy consumption and carbon emission data, refined control, intelligent decision-making, and visualized presentation. Factories are encouraged to strengthen their application of next-generation information technologies, accelerate the upgrading and replacement of industrial operating systems, and adopt digital technologies—including artificial intelligence, big data, blockchain, and digital twins—to create precise models of the entire production process, predict operational states, optimize process parameters, and enhance the digital and intelligent capabilities across all stages, including production manufacturing, quality management, logistics and transportation, sales and service, and traceability management.

　　 (6) Implement carbon offsetting and information disclosure to achieve carbon neutrality and continuous improvement. After the factory has achieved comprehensive, self-driven emission reductions to the point where further reductions are no longer feasible, any remaining carbon dioxide emissions can be offset through cross-border carbon trading and other mechanisms, thereby achieving and maintaining near-zero carbon emissions at the factory. We support the development of green electricity and green certificate trading to further increase the proportion of green electricity consumption. Factories are encouraged to regularly publish sustainability reports, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reports, and zero-carbon factory construction reports, publicly disclosing information on carbon emissions, product carbon footprints, and the status of zero-carbon factory development. This will help verify the anticipated outcomes and performance of zero-carbon factories and facilitate ongoing improvements.

　　 IV. Job Requirements

　　 (1) Strengthen organizational implementation. The industrial and information technology authorities in various regions may, based on local conditions and in collaboration with their respective development and reform commissions, ecological environment departments, market regulators, energy authorities, and other relevant agencies, formulate specific implementation plans for the construction of zero-carbon factories in their regions. They should promote the cultivation and construction of zero-carbon factories in a phased and orderly manner. Adhering to principles of standardization and comparability, highlighting key priorities, and emphasizing distinctive features, they should encourage collaborative innovation among multiple stakeholders—including government, enterprises, and the market—and explore effective models for building zero-carbon factories. They should also strengthen guidance and services, coordinate to resolve difficulties encountered during implementation, promptly optimize relevant tasks and measures, and leverage a variety of policy tools to support the construction of zero-carbon factories.

　　 (2) Improve the standards system. Fully leverage the foundational supporting and normative guiding role of standards in the construction of zero-carbon factories. Conduct research and develop basic, universally applicable standards such as general requirements for zero-carbon factories, providing a scientific, rational, and actionable technical basis for the management and performance evaluation of zero-carbon factories. Study and develop industry-specific guidelines and evaluation protocols for the construction of zero-carbon factories, and strengthen alignment with global brand enterprises’ adopted corporate net-zero emissions commitments and corporate carbon neutrality targets. Accelerate the development of accounting standards and technical method guidelines for greenhouse gas emissions at various levels—including industries/enterprises, processes/units, products, and projects—as well as relevant standards for corporate greenhouse gas information disclosure and product carbon footprint disclosure.

　　 (3) Promote integrated energy-saving and carbon-reduction services. Relevant industry associations, research institutes, service organizations, and other entities are encouraged to leverage their respective strengths to provide public services such as the commercialization of scientific and technological achievements, technology promotion, supply-demand matching, standard development, education and training, and international cooperation. They should actively offer industrial enterprises market-oriented services including carbon emission data accounting, carbon emission level assessment, energy-saving and carbon-reduction measurement and testing, consulting and diagnostics, renovation and management services, and investment and financing information matchmaking. We should cultivate and attract versatile talents who not only understand international rules but also master the principles of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality, while strengthening international exchanges and cooperation. We will gradually improve market-based mechanisms for green and low-carbon transformation, promote the application of zero-carbon factory initiatives in areas such as green consumption, green trade, and green finance, and stimulate the intrinsic motivation of industrial enterprises to reduce carbon emissions and pursue green, low-carbon development.