如何下好建设零碳园区这盘大棋How to Play the Big Game of Building a Zero-Carbon Park Well

Recently, the construction of zero-carbon parks across the country has accelerated significantly: At the end of August, Shanxi Province announced the first batch of seven provincial-level zero-carbon parks; on September 7, Shanghai issued the "Work Plan for the Construction of Zero-Carbon Parks"; and on September 11, Jiangsu Province released the "Implementation Plan for the Construction of Zero-Carbon Parks."

From a national perspective, the Central Economic Work Conference at the end of 2024 clearly proposed for the first time the construction of a number of zero-carbon parks; in June 2025, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the National Energy Administration jointly issued the "Notice on Carrying Out the Construction of Zero-Carbon Parks," marking the official launch of zero-carbon park construction nationwide. Su Nan, the leader of the Green Finance Working Group for Zero-Carbon Parks under the Green Finance Professional Committee of the China Finance Society, stated that it is expected that during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, around 100 national-level zero-carbon parks and a batch of provincial-level zero-carbon parks will be built nationwide. Both from the policy perspective and market scale, this is worth the industry's attention.

Why build it? Lin Ling, chief expert in the field of resources and environment at the China National Institute of Standardization, explained from five aspects. First, to give green electricity a 'home'; the electricity generated by wind farms and photovoltaic power stations needs a place to be used effectively, and the industrial park is the best place for consumption, promoting a green transition in energy utilization. Second, to help industries 'slim down'; traditional industries have high energy consumption and carbon emission levels, and emerging industries also need green development. Industrial parks are the main battleground for deep decarbonization of industries. Third, to pair the eastern and western regions; China's western regions are rich in wind and solar resources, with cheap green electricity, while the eastern regions are industrially dense and energy-intensive. Through zero-carbon parks, some industries from the east can move to the west and develop using green electricity, benefiting both sides. Fourth, to provide 'green passports' for export products; markets such as the European Union increasingly demand low carbon emissions, and zero-carbon products produced by park enterprises can meet these green trade requirements.

Fifth, set up 'model rooms.' Zero-carbon parks are like individual 'zero-carbon cells' and are the basic units of national green development. Currently, the first batch of 52 national-level zero-carbon parks has begun planning and construction, first creating models to accumulate experience, and then promoting them nationwide.

Investing in a zero-carbon park can easily reach tens of billions of yuan. So how should it actually be built? Chen Cheng, Deputy Director of the Climate Response Office of the Resources and Environment Business Department at China International Engineering Consulting Corporation, believes that building a zero-carbon park can be done in several steps: The first step is to get a clear picture of the situation by understanding the park's annual electricity and heat usage and identifying the load side. Then, explore surrounding green energy resources such as wind power, photovoltaic power, biomass power, waste incineration power, as well as geothermal and waste heat, to match the power supply, before taking targeted measures. The second step is to 'use green to treat green' by cultivating green industries with green energy. For example, the Suihua Anda Economic Development Zone in Heilongjiang Province introduced an integrated wind-solar-hydrogen-ammonia-methanol project, connecting renewable energy, energy storage, green hydrogen, and green methanol into an industrial chain. The third step is to 'operate' on existing parks. Siping City in Jilin Province implements customized energy-saving renovations for key enterprises to bring their energy consumption up to national efficiency standards. The Guangde Economic Development Zone in Anhui Province has built a zero-carbon management platform, using digital means to help enterprises save energy and reduce carbon.

The fourth step is to hire professional 'stewards.' Some parks in the central and western regions have limited own resources and need to publicly tender professional service providers. For example, Yunnan Xiangyun Economic Development Zone selected an integrated energy service provider, with a total of 17 consortia and nearly 80 companies participating in the bidding.

Zhang Wangyan, Deputy General Manager of the Finance Department of Bank of Nanjing Co., Ltd., gave an example, saying that Jiangsu Province has 158 parks at the provincial level or above, contributing about 50% of the province's total economic output and 70% of the added value of industrial enterprises above designated size, while also producing a large amount of energy consumption. Jiangsu's approach is "standards first, pilot projects lead, promotion across the jurisdiction": in 2024, it will release the construction guidelines for near-zero carbon parks; in August 2025, it will release the first provincial-level zero-carbon park construction standard in the Yangtze River Delta; this March, the Jiangsu branch of the People's Bank of China launched the country's first zero-carbon park financial scheme. Yancheng Dafeng Port built the country's first park-level direct green electricity supply scenario, and Changzhou Liyang High-tech Zone is building a power battery industry cluster relying on CATL. These two parks have been selected as the first batch of national-level zero-carbon parks. Currently, 35 parks in Jiangsu have entered the provincial-level cultivation pool, and the five cities in southern Jiangsu plan to build about 45 near-zero carbon parks by 2027.

Lin Ling emphasized that a zero-carbon park does not mean no carbon emissions, but rather reducing carbon emissions to an extremely low level, and then offsetting them to a near-zero carbon state through means such as using green electricity and carbon sinks. According to the indicator system in the "Notice on the Construction of Zero-Carbon Parks," the proportion of clean energy in the park must reach 90%, the recycling rate of solid waste and water must reach 80%, and waste heat and residual pressure must also be fully utilized. Jiangsu Province has set the goal that by 2030, carbon emissions per unit of energy consumption will be less than 0.3 tons of CO2 per ton of standard coal, and the proportion of non-fossil energy electricity will exceed 80%.

Cheng Lin, Director of the International Cooperation and Research Center at the Beijing Institute of Green Finance and Sustainable Development, mentioned an important indicator, 'carbon intensity': by 2035, the national total carbon emissions should decrease by 7% to 10% from the peak, with varying difficulties across different industries. Currently, the nationwide balance of green loans and green bonds has exceeded 50 trillion yuan, and green loans account for nearly half of the new loans, with funds rapidly flowing into green projects. Lin Ling stated that the past dual control of energy consumption should shift to dual control of carbon emissions, using standardized methods to consolidate the experiences of national-level and provincial-level industrial parks so that more parks can learn and follow; zero-carbon parks will be an important lever to coordinate economic development with energy saving and carbon reduction, and green finance is irreplaceable in meeting their funding needs.

[Source: China Hi-Tech Industry Herald]

[Editor: Xiao Neng]