China rolls out guidance on standards for calculating product carbon footprint

China aims to introduce 200 rules and standards to calculate the carbon footprint of major industrial products by 2027, as part of its efforts to peak carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060, according to a guideline released by the country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) on Monday.

Priority will be given to products from sectors with large trading volumes internationally and great potential for carbon emission reduction, like steel, non-ferrous metals, construction materials, new energy vehicles, electronics and appliances, MIIT said.

MIIT is poised to cooperate with other departments, as well as industry associations, leading enterprises, and research institutes, to draw up the standards that will first be applied among associations, before they are credible enough to be adopted as industrial standards or even national standards, according to the guideline.

Meanwhile, the standards will be formulated in line with designated framework and wording, and once finalized, they will be made public with intensive promotion, Mysteel Global noted. Efforts will also be put into the training and implementation of the standards, especially for scenarios like government procurement, dual-control of carbon emissions, promotion of low-carbon technologies and so on.

Written by Irene Zhuang, zhuangailing@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com