The Ministry of Ecology and Environment officially released the "Progress Report on the Construction of Product Carbon Footprint Management System (2025)" on the "National Low Carbon Day" in 2025 (June 25), systematically sorting out the work progress of various departments in the field of product carbon footprint since 2024, introducing the relevant work results from four aspects: establishing and improving the management system, building a multi-party participation work pattern, promoting international mutual trust in rules, and strengthening capacity building, and looking forward to the future construction of my country's product carbon footprint management system.

Product carbon footprint refers to the sum of carbon emissions generated by each link of the product from raw material acquisition, product production, transportation and distribution, use and consumption to final waste treatment. It is an important indicator for measuring the green and low-carbon level of production enterprises and products. In recent years, international trade policies and market access rules based on product carbon footprint have frequently appeared, and more and more multinational companies have also included product carbon footprint in the requirements of sustainable supply chain management.

Establish and improve the carbon footprint management system

After continuous promotion of construction, the "two cornerstones" and "three systems" of the carbon footprint management system have been initially established.

The national standards "Guidelines for the Preparation of Product Carbon Footprint Accounting Standards" and "Quantitative Requirements and Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Product Carbon Footprint" (GB/T24067-2024) have been released to provide guidance and direction for the construction of the product carbon footprint standard system. By the end of 2024, more than 70 national standards for product carbon footprint accounting have been released and under development, and more than 100 group standards for product carbon footprint accounting in subdivided fields have been released; the power carbon footprint factors reflecting the actual domestic situation have been released in a timely manner, solving the "urgent need" for product carbon footprint accounting in various industries; the construction of relevant systems has been accelerated to provide guarantees for carbon footprint work. The construction of the national carbon footprint management system has made a good start.

A multi-party participation work pattern has been initially formed

Various departments have strengthened the connection and interaction around the product carbon footprint work, accelerated the formation of policy synergy, and provided all-round and multi-angle support for the development of product carbon footprint work in terms of policy, finance, application scenarios, etc., and initially formed a multi-party participation, co-construction, co-sharing and sharing work pattern.

As of November 2024, 4,025 enterprises will be registered in the "Industrial Green Development" zone, helping 2,136 enterprises to raise 111.912 billion yuan in financing, and guiding financial institutions to continue to provide customized and targeted financial services.

Enrich the implementation scenarios and build a diversified support "application pattern". Carbon footprint requirements are gradually included in government procurement documents; leading e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba's "88 Carbon Account" and JD's "Green Plan" display low-carbon products and user carbon behavior; various industries promote the use of carbon footprints in product design, green manufacturing and consumption scenarios.

Promote first-mover advantage and explore the "management pattern" combining points and surfaces. Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, Chongqing and other places have issued provincial management plans, explored localized databases and accounting standards for characteristic products, and promoted the mutual recognition of carbon footprint logos in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao. Zhejiang took the lead in carrying out product carbon footprint evaluation pilot projects in more than 20 leading enterprises in key industries such as textiles and lithium batteries.

International mutual trust in carbon footprint rules has steadily increased

Around the evolution of international carbon footprint rules, various departments have strengthened trend analysis and problem identification, and based on the importance of priorities, have used various channels and platforms to promote international communication and coordination of carbon footprints around key areas such as accounting standards, factor data, and labeling and certification.

Strengthen trend analysis and guidance of international carbon footprint rules. Focus on hot policies such as EU CBAM and battery regulations, organize technical institutions to conduct assessments and responses, and use the WTO platform to propose multilateral initiatives and express China's position.

Strengthen standard coordination exchanges. Relevant companies have connected and communicated with international database institutions such as Sphera MLC (formerly GaBi) to discuss the EU battery carbon footprint (CFB) database rules and explore the promotion of international mutual recognition of factor data. Relevant research institutions have conducted in-depth discussions with the European Commission's Environment Directorate-General, the United Nations Environment Programme Life Cycle Initiative, the European Commission's Joint Research Center (JRC), the World Steel Association, the Italian Environmental Product Declaration Organization, etc. on unified data framework standards, unified data bases, and basic data development methods and methods to enhance the international recognition of data.

Participate in the formulation and revision of international standards. We have promoted relevant enterprises and experts to actively participate in international carbon footprint standardization activities, organized relevant units to propose 27 relevant international standard proposals in the fields of marine negative emissions, photovoltaic cells, power storage systems and stability control, solar trackers, solar thermal power generation, etc., and took the lead in formulating more than 10 "dual carbon" international standards in the fields of crystalline silicon and photovoltaic modules. With the help of platforms such as the United Nations World Forum for Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations (UN/WP.29) Informal Working Group on Automotive Life Cycle Assessment, we have supported relevant industry enterprises to deeply participate in the formulation and revision of international standards, laying the foundation for the connection of international and domestic relevant product carbon footprint accounting standards.

Product carbon footprint capacity building continues to strengthen

Focusing on talents, data quality, security and other aspects, various departments actively promote related work and continuously improve the ability to build a product carbon footprint management system.

Strengthen the setting of related majors in the "dual carbon" field. Set up relevant majors around carbon footprint-related industries and arrange talent training. Continue to improve the layout of carbon footprint-related majors, strengthen the construction of basic teaching elements, select 46 carbon footprint-related courses and establish them as national online boutique courses, and launch 206 carbon footprint-related professional teaching resource libraries and 828 online courses.

Continue to deepen the collaborative education of school-enterprise cooperation. Organize enterprises to support colleges and universities in carrying out industry-university cooperation and collaborative education projects, promote talent training in colleges and universities with the latest needs of industrial and technological development, and effectively stimulate the enthusiasm of all parties through government support, enterprise support, university docking, co-construction and sharing. So far, the organization has identified 796 carbon footprint-related industry-university cooperation and collaborative education projects.

Improve the measurement system to ensure "accurate measurement". Improve the quality level to ensure that carbon footprint data is "safe and reliable". Formulate and issue the "Trusted Data Space Development Action Plan (2024-2028)" to guide and support the development of trusted data space, promote the compliance and efficient circulation and use of data elements, support the construction of a national integrated data market, and clearly cultivate the trusted data space of the carbon footprint management industry to enable the integrated development of the first, second and third industries.

In the next step, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will further implement the work arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on establishing a product carbon footprint management system, further improve the product carbon footprint accounting rules and standards system, accelerate the research on carbon footprint factors of key products, explore ways to connect the "full chain" of product carbon footprint management, strengthen international exchanges, promote international recognition of carbon footprint rules, and continue to promote the implementation of various tasks in the "Implementation Plan for Establishing a Carbon Footprint Management System" to ensure that practical results are achieved.

Author：Qinger