According to China’s current strategy, the country would adopt a new green energy policy to encourage low-carbon consumption across a variety of industries in order to balance economic development with its objective of being carbon neutral, South China Morning Post reports.
The green energy policy effort, which was released on Friday by seven government departments including the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Commerce, aims to encourage “sustainable energy consumption.”
To support the dual-carbon targets of peak carbon emissions in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060, it calls for boosting the production and consumption of green and low-carbon goods, as well as encouraging the green transformation of the country’s consumption structure. It outlined standards in a variety of areas, including food and clothes, housing, transportation, tourism, and the use of renewable energy sources.
“In recent years, China has made positive progress in promoting green consumption, but its demand still needs further stimulation to be fully realized,” the regulators wrote in the plan. “Waste and unreasonable consumption still exist in some areas … and the supporting role of green consumption to higher-quality economic development needs to be further improved.”
Restaurants and delivery services have been instructed to reduce food waste and encourage appropriate customer behavior when it comes to food consumption. It aims to encourage the use of low-carbon textiles in production and speed the recycling of garment materials. The strategy supports the use of low-carbon construction materials, stimulates building material recycling, and attempts to modernize and remodel older communities to save energy and reduce carbon emissions in the housing sector.
The strategy also promotes the use of new energy vehicles (NEVs) and the progressive elimination of buying limitations. It urges the building of NEV charging stations, energy storage, hydrogen replenishing stations, and other related infrastructure to be expedited.
According to the green energy policy proposal, shopping malls and e-commerce platforms should also take responsibility for promoting green product consumption by building up low-carbon product sales zones.
Local governments were instructed to streamline green power distribution in order to encourage customers to use more green electricity, according to the policy. To boost the amount of green energy in electricity consumption, local governments have been instructed to promote smart photovoltaic systems in residential structures.