Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone in Anhui province launched China's first pilot program for carbon credits for industrial enterprises on March 14, centering on key industries and enterprises while striving to boost the zone's green and low-carbon transformation.

Under the program titled Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone Industrial Enterprises Carbon Credits Pilot Action Plan, the zone will help enterprises realize the importance of green transformation and take responsibility for controlling pollution and curbing carbon emissions to achieve the country's "dual carbon" goals.

The carbon credit program takes a market-oriented approach to achieving energy conservation and carbon reduction at the lowest cost, enabling enterprises to eliminate their excess carbon emissions by purchasing carbon credits while selling the surplus for profit.  

The zone will improve enterprises' awareness and capabilities in terms of carbon emissions and carbon asset management, supervise the overall production process and deepen energy-saving and carbon-reduction measures.  

For industries, the zone will implement energy-saving and carbon-reduction plans in key sectors featuring competent leadership. It will also establish an evaluation system and promote a number of near-zero carbon factories and workshops.

The zone will furthermore combine social resources with industrial development and expand its supply of green and low-carbon products.

To implement the program, the zone will select a batch of leading enterprises as pilot units. It will then determine the accounting method used for carbon credits, and establish a carbon credit evaluation system covering data pertaining to the economy, energy, pollution emissions, carbon emissions and evaluation. In addition, it will build a management platform for carbon credits and a corporate management system.