On June 15, China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and several other government departments and agencies have jointly issued a three-year action plan to accelerate energy-saving and carbon-reduction upgrades in key industries.
The document sets out major targets through the end of 2028, detailing specific upgrade tasks for nine key industries, and calls for better support through funding, price guidance, policy incentives and standards-based constraints.
Accordingly, starting from 2026, over a three-year period, comprehensive energy conservation and carbon reduction upgrades will be fully implemented across nine key industries, including steel, electrolytic aluminum, cement, flat glass, petroleum refining, ethylene, synthetic ammonia, methanol, and coal-fired power generation. The initiative aims to drive enterprises to improve their energy efficiency and carbon performance to the maximum extent possible, and to significantly enhance the green and low-carbon development level of these industries.
In particular, by the end of 2028, the proportion of steel industry capacity that meets the current energy efficiency benchmark level will increase by an average of 20 percentage points. For coal and power industries, the proportion of capacity that meets the current energy efficiency benchmark level will increase by an average of 15 percentage points.
The cumulative energy savings will exceed 100 million mt of standard coal equivalent, and carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by more than 200 million mt in the 2026-2028 period.
