Plans for carbon reductions in major sectors afoot

Employees work at an iron and steel plant in Ma'anshan, Anhui province. [Photo by Luo Jisheng/For China Daily]

China's implementation plans to peak carbon emissions within several raw material industries are in the pipeline, an official from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Wednesday.

Feng Meng, deputy head of raw material industries at the MIIT, said the ministry has worked with the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments to jointly formulate carbon peak implementation plans for nonferrous metals, building materials, petrochemicals, steel and other industries, which will clarify the roadmap and specific task arrangements for carbon emission reduction goals.

Feng said the ministry will strictly implement capacity-swapping policies in industries such as steel, cement and flat glass, and strictly control new capacity in these sectors.

The concept of capacity-swapping was introduced to cut outdated capacity, which allows the building of new plants to replace existing plant capacity by an equal or lower amount.

The ministry will also strictly control newly added production capacity in industries such as oil refining and ammonium phosphate production, and control production capacity growth rates in the coal chemical industry in a proper manner, Feng added.

Last year, China produced more than 150,000 types of raw materials used across various fields.

"China's green transformation of raw material industries has seen progress in the past five years. The comprehensive energy consumption for producing 1 metric ton of crude steel was 545 kilograms of standard coal equivalent for key large and medium-sized enterprises, a decrease of 4.7 percent from that of 2015," said Chen Kelong, head of raw material industries at the MIIT.

Standard coal equivalent is a unit of energy measurement corresponding to the energy produced by coal combustion. Per-kg standard coal equivalent corresponds to a value of 7,000 kilocalories.

"Sulfur dioxide emissions from producing 1 ton of steel were down 46 percent compared with that of 2015. AC power consumption used in producing one ton of primary aluminum was 13,510 kilowatt-hours, which was 6.9 percent lower than the global average," Chen said.

Chen also outlined a series of goals to achieve in terms of green transformation across raw material industries by the end of 2025.

"The comprehensive energy consumption of producing 1 ton of crude steel will be reduced by 2 percent. Energy consumption used per unit of clinker－an intermediary cement product－will be reduced by 3.7 percent. Carbon emissions from producing aluminum by electrolysis will fall by 5 percent," Chen said.

"Overall, both the intensity and total volume of pollutant emissions in key industries will be reduced. In addition, the utilization rate of industrial waste and other solid waste will be further improved," Chen said.