China to Establish Carbon Emissions Accounting System in 2023

The timetable for the construction of China’s carbon emissions statistical accounting system has now been made clear. On August 19, the Chinese National Development and Reform Commission, the National Bureau of Statistics and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment jointly issued an implementation plan for boosting the establishment of a unified and standardized carbon emissions statistical accounting system.

According to the plan, the statistical accounting of carbon emissions in various industries will be carried out steadily by 2023, and a standardized statistical accounting system will be initially established. In 2025, the system will be further improved, the statistical foundation will be made more solid, and the data quality will be comprehensively improved.

The National Development and Reform Commission said that the statistical accounting of carbon emissions is an important foundation for achieving carbon dioxide peaking and carbon neutralization. In addition, it is beneficial for formulating policies, promoting work, conducting assessments and negotiating with performances.

In the “Action Plan for Carbon Dioxide Peaking Before 2030” issued by the State Council in November last year, the establishment of a standardized statistical system for carbon emissions was listed as an important policy guarantee.

The plan specified four key tasks: establishing national and local carbon emissions statistical accounting systems, improving the carbon emissions accounting mechanism of industrial enterprises, improving the carbon emissions accounting methods of key products and a national greenhouse gas inventories production mechanism.

In order to promote the implementation of the above tasks, the plan also specified five safeguard measures, including the establishment of a national greenhouse gas emissions factor database. “Emissions factor” refers to a city’s greenhouse gas emissions created by per unit of production or consumption activities, which is an important parameter for statistical accounting.

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In a proposal submitted during China’s “Two Sessions” earlier this year, Robin Zeng, the chairman of domestic battery giant CATL, suggested that relevant departments update and publish domestic power carbon emissions factors annually on a regional basis, establishing a database of carbon emission factors across all links of the domestic battery industry chain.