Yan Xiaofeng: Implement the "double carbon" strategy and cultivate green kinetic energy for the construction of a modern building materials industry system

At the beginning of this year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four ministries and commissions jointly issued the "Building Materials Industry Carbon Peak Implementation Plan" for the building materials industry carbon peak comprehensive work deployment. Combined with the actual situation of the industry, the China Building Materials Federation put forward the goal that China's building materials industry should fully achieve carbon peak in 2025, and cement and other industries should take the lead in achieving carbon peak in 2023. At the 2023 Building Materials Industry Conference held recently, Yan Xiaofeng, Secretary of the Party Committee and President of the China Building Materials Federation, said.

According to reports, in recent years, the green and low-carbon development of the building materials industry has achieved remarkable results under the concerted efforts and joint promotion of the government, industry, enterprises and society. Compared with 2020, carbon dioxide emissions from the building materials industry decreased by 7.6% in 2022, and carbon dioxide emissions from the cement industry decreased by 13.9%. It has become a reality for the cement industry to achieve carbon peak ahead of schedule, and the era of carbon neutrality in the building materials industry is coming. At the same time, the internal and external environment of the development of the industry is changing, the overall number of scale has turned to a steady downward trend, 32 kinds of key monitoring building materials products, 11 kinds of product output in the past two years declined, of which the output of cement products fell by 10.9%.

Yan Xiaofeng believes that with reference to the development process of the building materials industry in the world's major economies and the actual domestic comprehensive research and judgment, China's building materials industry has reached a critical period of shift adjustment and a crossroads of transformation and development. The building materials industry should take the initiative to reconstruct the industry ecology from a systematic perspective, promote the acceleration of the construction of a modern building materials industry system, plan the key goals and tasks of the future development of the industry, and promote green, low-carbon, safe and high-quality development is an important embodiment of the building materials industry's initiative to respond to the new situation, new environment and new changes in the era of carbon neutrality.

Yan Xiaofeng pointed out that promoting carbon peak and carbon neutrality in the building materials industry is not only the mission of the building materials industry, but also the inevitable requirement for the transformation and upgrading of the building materials industry and the realization of green, low-carbon, safe and high-quality development. Therefore, the implementation of the "double carbon" strategy in the building materials industry can cultivate green kinetic energy for the construction of a modern building materials industry system.

The first is to focus on promoting the construction of "60" factories to comprehensively enhance the intrinsic value of the industry.The construction of the "60" factory is not only a high condensation of the green, high-end and intelligent development connotation of the building materials industry, but also a concrete goal of the green and low-carbon development of the building materials industry. It is necessary to actively carry out the construction of "six zero" factories with zero purchased electricity, zero fossil energy factories, zero primary resource factories, zero carbon emission factories, zero waste emission factories and zero employees, with "one zero" as the starting point and "six zeros" as the direction, organize and carry out technical research and integrated application of energy-saving and carbon-reduction technologies, vigorously promote the "six zero" factory "unveiling the leader" scientific and technological research and pilot demonstration, accelerate the research and formulation of the evaluation methods and standard systems of the "six zero" factories, and select a number of typical cases that can be used for reference and promote them in the whole industry. It is necessary to strengthen the publicity and guidance of public opinion, actively strive for the attention and support of government departments and all walks of life, and form a benign development environment that vigorously promotes the construction of "60" factories.

The second is to focus on energy conservation and carbon reduction transformation and upgrading, and fully realize the green and low-carbon transformation of the industry.Fully implement the "Implementation Plan for Carbon Peaking in the Building Materials Industry", increase the implementation of energy-saving and carbon-reduction transformation in key areas, and comprehensively promote the improvement of key indicators such as energy efficiency, carbon reduction and environmental protection in major building materials industries with the goal of international leading level. Strictly implement the requirements of documents such as the "Several Opinions on Strict Energy Efficiency Constraints to Promote Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction in Key Areas", "Energy Efficiency Benchmarking Level and Benchmark Level in Key Industrial Areas", and "Implementation Guidelines for Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction Transformation and Upgrading in Key Areas of High Energy-consuming Industries" issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments, to ensure that the proportion of production capacity targets and production capacity exit targets that are inferior to the benchmark level of energy efficiency in various industries are achieved on schedule. Carry out in-depth promotion of carbon emission reduction technologies in key industries, strengthen the promotion and application of carbon emission reduction technical guidelines in cement, flat glass, building sanitary ceramics, and glass fiber industries, carry out the formulation and implementation of carbon emission reduction technical guidelines in wall materials and other industries, strengthen the promotion and application of low-carbon products and technologies, and continue to carry out the special work of "dissecting sparrows" for energy conservation and carbon reduction in typical enterprises, give full play to the pilot demonstration and guidance verification effect, and guide enterprises to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of energy conservation and carbon reduction. By prioritizing the use of measures such as source reduction and process control, we will accelerate the implementation of in-depth pollutant treatment and ultra-low carbon dioxide emission transformation in key industries such as cement, lime, glass, and ceramics, promote the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and promote the green and low-carbon development of various industries.

The third is to focus on promoting the adjustment of energy consumption structure and comprehensively build an efficient and clean production system.Efforts will be made to accelerate the optimization of the energy structure of the building materials industry, promote clean and low-carbon energy consumption, and reduce dependence on fossil energy and external power. Increase the proportion of clean energy, especially green electricity, in an orderly manner. Encourage the whole industry and all fields to carry out research, application and practice of green electric energy as the initial energy source. Support and guide building materials enterprises to make full use of their own facilities and sites for distributed photovoltaic and wind power generation, and increase the proportion of renewable energy utilization. Fully tap the potential of waste heat recovery and utilization, and widely adopt various heat exchange, heat power conversion, waste heat refrigeration and heating technologies, and continuously improve energy efficiency. Actively promote the technology of replacing coal with a high proportion of combustible waste. Support and encourage the transformation and construction of cement kiln co-disposal waste projects based on existing cement production enterprises, and increase the proportion of alternative fuel applications. Support and encourage the building materials industry to focus on the R&D and pilot test of cutting-edge technologies such as hydrogen energy, wind energy, solar energy, and low-cost energy storage, cultivate a number of demonstration enterprises that have made breakthroughs in the utilization of clean energy, and continuously promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the building materials industry.

Fourth, we will focus on giving full play to the environmental protection effect of carbon reduction and comprehensively expand the green effect of the industry.Comprehensively strengthen the coupling effect between industries. Give full play to the advantages of the comprehensive utilization of building materials industry resources, establish a comprehensive coordinated development system of industries such as "coal-building materials", "chemical-building materials", "electricity-building materials" and "urban functions-building materials", and promote the symbiosis and collaborative utilization of resources between enterprises, parks and industries. Through the co-disposal of waste to produce building materials products, promote the transformation of building materials production enterprises into environmental protection functions and urban construction standard enterprises, and gradually realize the collaborative cycle development between industries. It is necessary to continuously increase the proportion of non-carbonate industrial waste and tailings replacing limestone in cement clinker production, accelerate the research and development, promotion and application of low-carbon cement such as sulfur (iron) aluminate cement, high belit cement, clay calcined cement, and low clinker cement, and reduce carbon emissions from cement production. Comprehensively strengthen the synergistic effect of building materials and new energy in building materials. The carbon emission and performance quality of building materials products are directly related to the carbon emissions in the physical and chemical stage of the building, and the energy consumption in the operation and maintenance stage, forming a virtuous circle of carbon reduction in the whole industry chain and the supply and demand of the whole life cycle in terms of policies, standards, technologies, and carbon accounting. By optimizing aggregate particle size gradation, improving concrete design, and promoting the productization of building parts, we can reduce and accurately use building material products. We will continue to meet the needs of the development of the new energy industry, and establish an industrial chain of wind power and optoelectronic basic materials such as glass fiber products and photovoltaic glass, so as to realize the coordinated development of upstream and downstream and the industrial cluster of link symbiosis. Strengthen the R&D and industrial application of resource utilization technologies such as construction waste, retired photovoltaic modules, and waste wind power blades.

Fifth, focusing on the cement industry, we will comprehensively promote the construction of the carbon emission market in the building materials industry.Entrusted by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Federation is taking the lead in organizing and carrying out special research on the inclusion of the building materials (cement) industry in the national carbon market expansion, and will follow the principle of "carbon emission has a cost, carbon reduction has a benefit", coordinate the actual development of the industry, study and formulate the cement industry carbon quota allocation plan, carbon emission accounting and reporting guidelines, carbon emission verification technical guidelines and other technical documents, and start the construction of carbon emission data control platform for the building materials industry. The pilot project of online carbon dioxide monitoring has laid a solid foundation for promoting the inclusion of the cement industry in the national carbon market trading system. Explore and promote the carbon emission reduction market mechanism in line with the characteristics of the building materials industry. Support and encourage the cement industry to actively explore ways to achieve carbon neutrality, and promote the implementation of carbon capture, storage and reuse technology (CCUS) in key carbon emission industries such as cement into the scope of certified voluntary emission reductions (CCER). Organize and carry out the research and development of concrete carbon sink technologies such as concrete carbon sink, carbon sequestration, and carbon curing, build carbon dioxide absorption accounting methods for cement-based materials, develop and promote the application of new materials that can effectively help concrete "breathe", and promote the construction of concrete "carbon sink" mechanism.