Zhang Zaijie, a professor at Guizhou University of Finance and Economics: Promote green transformation according to carbon traces

The National Development and Reform Commission and other five departments jointly issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of a Product Carbon Footprint Management System", proposing to promote the establishment of a product carbon footprint management system in line with the actual national conditions, and improve the rules and standards for carbon footprint accounting methods for key products. This is of great significance for accelerating the improvement of the carbon footprint management level of China's key products, promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of related industries, actively guiding green and low-carbon consumption, and helping to achieve the "double carbon" goal.

Carbon footprint is an indicator of greenhouse gas emissions and has important applications in all aspects of economic and social life. For individuals, carbon footprint can be reflected in daily behaviors such as driving to and from work, for products, it can be used to reflect the environmental friendliness of a product, for enterprises, it can be used to explore the sustainable development competitiveness of enterprises, and for countries, it means the sum of carbon emissions of various industries. Among them, product carbon footprint is the most widely used and the most critical, including the total carbon emissions generated by the whole process of products from raw material processing, transportation, production to factory sales, which is an important standard to measure the green and low-carbon level of production enterprises and products.

The implementation of carbon footprint management, carbon footprint accounting, evaluation, certification is a very important basic work. In recent years, some countries have gradually established carbon footprint accounting, evaluation and certification systems for key products, and more and more multinational companies have also incorporated product carbon footprints into sustainable supply chain management requirements. China is also stepping up relevant work, such as the introduction of the "National Standardization System Construction and Development Plan (2016-2020)" put forward the relevant requirements of carbon footprint standards, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Photovoltaic Manufacturing Industry Standard Conditions" to encourage and support photovoltaic enterprises to carry out carbon footprint certification, and so on. The "Opinions on Accelerating the Establishment of a Product Carbon Footprint Management System" issued this time further standardizes the product carbon footprint management standards.

The establishment of a product carbon footprint management system in line with the actual national conditions involves the formulation of product carbon footprint accounting rules and standards, the construction of carbon footprint background database, the product carbon labeling certification system, the enrichment of product carbon footprint application scenarios and the promotion of carbon footprint international convergence and mutual recognition. In this regard, relevant policies should be improved and implemented as soon as possible in combination with the main goals and key tasks.

Optimize the study of product carbon footprint accounting rules and the development of standards. The "Opinions" proposes that by 2025, about 50 carbon footprint accounting rules and standards for key products will be issued at the national level, and about 200 will be issued by 2030. At present, it is necessary to clarify the product carbon footprint accounting boundary, accounting method, data quality requirements and traceability as soon as possible, and encourage relevant industry associations, leading enterprises, universities and scientific research institutes to study and formulate carbon footprint accounting rules and standards for key products by means of scientific research topics, project promotion, and unveiling, etc., and allow mature enterprise group standards to be tried first, and promote the formulation of national standards or industry standards.

Improve the construction of carbon footprint background databases for key industries. The "Opinions" pointed out that by 2025, a number of carbon footprint background databases of key industries will be preliminarily completed, and by 2030, a number of carbon footprint background databases of key industries with wide coverage, high data quality and strong international influence will be basically completed. In accordance with the requirements of uniform methods and accurate and reliable data, on the basis of indicating the source of data, relevant industry associations, enterprises, and scientific research units should be encouraged to collect and sort out relevant data resources in their respective industries in accordance with laws and regulations, and publish a background database of product carbon footprints in subdivided industries. It should also clearly support the research on technical standards for energy consumption, energy efficiency, and low-carbon carbon to achieve carbon peaking, and guide the construction of standardized databases for energy, steel, non-ferrous metals, petrochemical and chemical industries, building materials, transportation, construction and other related industry associations and enterprises, so as to form a public policy environment for enterprises to carry out product carbon footprint accounting as soon as possible.

Promote the establishment of a product carbon labeling certification mechanism. On the basis of formulating product carbon footprint accounting rules and standards and establishing relevant background databases, a unified and standardized product carbon label certification mechanism should be established in a timely manner, and carbon label certification such as product carbon footprint should be gradually carried out in accordance with the principle of "mature one and established one". Encourage enterprises to voluntarily carry out product carbon label certification in accordance with the principle of marketization, and realize energy conservation, emission reduction and carbon reduction in the whole process from raw material processing, transportation, production to factory sales.

Enrich the application scenarios of product carbon footprint. The "Opinions" require that by 2025, the application scenarios of carbon footprint accounting and labeling in the fields of production, consumption, trade and finance will be significantly expanded, and the national product carbon labeling certification mechanism will be fully established by 2030, and carbon labeling will be widely recognized by enterprises and consumers. At present, the level of product carbon footprint should be taken as an important indicator to support enterprises to carry out green transformation of technological processes, strengthen energy conservation and carbon reduction management, tap the potential of energy conservation and carbon reduction, encourage leading enterprises to establish a product carbon footprint management system according to the development level of the industry and their own reality, promote enterprises to strengthen the management of the whole industrial chain of carbon footprint, and promote the overall green and low-carbon transformation of the supply chain.

The author is a professor and dean of the Institute of Green Development Strategy in Western China, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics