China issues 5-year plan to boost green development of industrial sectors

BEIJING -- China on Friday released a plan for the green development of its industrial sectors during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025), a step forward in the country's pursuit of low-carbon growth.

By 2025, significant progress will have been made in the green and low-carbon transformation of China's industrial structure and production, with technologies and equipment for green development widely applied, according to the plan issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

Efficiency in energy and resource utilization will be greatly enhanced and green development in the manufacturing sector will improve further by 2025, laying a solid foundation for the peaking of carbon emissions in industrial sectors by 2030, the plan said.

China aims to lower its carbon dioxide emissions by 18 percent and the energy intensity of its major industrial firms by 13.5 percent per unit of value-added industrial output by 2025. The intensity of major pollutant emissions in key sectors will be reduced by 10 percent, according to the plan.

A green manufacturing system for key sectors and regions will be basically established by 2025, with the market value for green and eco-friendly industries reaching 11 trillion yuan (about 1.73 trillion U.S. dollars), it said.

The plan also rolls out specified measures and eight major projects to advance improvements in industrial sectors in terms of industrial upgrades, energy consumption with low-carbon emissions, and the recyclable use of resources, among other areas, MIIT official Huang Libin said.

Huang called for efforts to curb the blind expansion of projects with high energy consumption or high emissions, enhance the utilization of industrial solid waste, and accelerate the improvement of green and low-carbon technologies.