The Chinese government has emphasized its carbon-reduction requirements for industry, construction, transportation, AI and public sectors.
The State Council and the CPC jointly issued “Opinions on Enhancing Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction at a Higher Level and Higher Quality” on April 22, requiring further carbon reduction in key sectors.
The document states that it will strengthen incentives, constraints and standard improvements for energy conservation and carbon reduction, and continuously reduce industries’ dependence on energy. It will vigorously promote energy-saving, low-carbon and cleaner production technologies, equipment and products, actively develop market-oriented energy conservation and carbon reduction services, and support the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries with digital intelligent technologies and green technologies.
The document also specifies that fossil energy consumption will be strictly controlled, coal and oil consumption reduction will be further advanced, and the peaking of coal and oil consumption will be gradually realized.
Key sectors covered in the document include industry, construction, transportation, digital infrastructure (including computing power, communication base stations and data rooms) and public institutions, all of which are required to further conserve energy and reduce carbon emissions.
In August 2025, the General Office of the CPCCC and the General Office of the State Council issued the Opinions on Promoting Green and Low-Carbon Transformation and Strengthening the Development of the National Carbon Market, which aims to effectively incentivize carbon emission reduction actions across society by accelerating the development of the national carbon emission trading market.
On September 1 last year, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Measures for Energy Conservation Review and Carbon Emission Assessment of Fixed Asset Investment Projects, incorporating carbon assessment into the core process of project approval.
The documents and directions issued by the Chinese government concerning energy conservation and carbon reduction have covered a wide spectrum of the economy.
It is particularly noteworthy that the Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China proposes that carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will drop by 17% by the end of the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Meanwhile, an indicator for the share of non-fossil energy in total energy consumption appeared in the Plan for the first time, which will rise from 21.7% in 2025 to 25% in 2030.
In addition, the 15th Five-Year Plan clearly proposes to implement a dual control system for carbon emissions by:
- expanding the coverage of the national carbon emission trading market,
- establishing a comprehensive evaluation and assessment system for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and
- steadily implementing policies and systems including:
>local carbon assessments,
>industrial carbon control,
>enterprise carbon management,
>project carbon assessment and
>product carbon footprint management.
Source: China Ecological Civilization, Beijing. April 23, 2026.
