China’s carbon neutral goal: Beijing cracks the whip, directs its worst polluting firms to get house in order

Name: China completes its first greenhouse gas observation network
Uploaded: 2022-01-01T07:00:23.000Z
Duration: 1 min 8 s
Description: China completes its first greenhouse gas observation network

SOEs ‘should play demonstrative and leading roles in promoting carbon peaking and carbon-neutrality’, regulator says

State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council oversees some of China’s most power-hungry and heavy polluting firms

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A coal-powered power station in Zhangjiakou, in China’s northern Hebei province. SOEs generate more than half of China’s energy sector emissions. Photo: Getty Images/TNS

Yujie Xue

Published: 3:00pm, 1 Jan 2022

China’s state-owned enterprises (SOEs) must cut their energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions to support the country’s carbon-neutral goals, Beijing has said.

The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) has set a development pattern for the country’s centrally-owned enterprises to achieve carbon peaking and net-zero emissions in a timely fashion.

“SOEs hold an important position in national security and the economy, while they are also key units of carbon emissions. They should play demonstrative and leading roles in promoting carbon peaking and carbon-neutrality,” the regulator said last week.

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China completes its first greenhouse gas observation network

The SASAC currently oversees 97 SOEs that carry out commercial activity on behalf of the Chinese government, down from more than 150 in 2008 due to mergers and reorganisation. The 97 companies include many in the country’s power-hungry and heavy-asset sectors, such as steel, aviation, telecommunications, electricity generation, mining and construction, and some in renewable energy, such as nuclear power.

In a statement released on Thursday, the regulator said that by 2025, SOEs must cut their energy consumption per 10,000 yuan (US$1,571.8) of output value by 15 per cent below their 2020 levels. Carbon dioxide emissions per 10,000 yuan of output value should also be reduced by 18 per cent.

The SASAC also ordered the installed proportion of renewable energy power generation at SOEs to be raised to more than 50 per cent, and that revenue from these firms’ strategic investments in emerging industries should account for no lower than 30 per cent of their total revenue by 2025.

By 2030, the year by which China wants the entire country to peak its carbon emissions, SOEs should make significant progress in low-carbon transformation, with carbon emissions per 10,000 yuan of output value reducing by more than 65 per cent compared to 2005 levels, the regulator said.

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