Hong Qunlian, China Macroeconomic Research Institute: Promote the production and application of green building materials and give full play to the carbon reduction effect

The building materials industry is an important basic industry and pillar industry of the national economy, which is related to economic growth, improvement of people's livelihood and urban and rural construction. In recent years, with the transformation of development mode and the upgrading of demand structure, the building materials industry has entered a stage of development characterized by green and low-carbon. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other 10 departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for the High-quality Development of the Green Building Materials Industry", which clarified the direction, goals and measures for the high-quality development of the green building materials industry, and enhanced the endogenous force, influence, growth and support of the whole industrial chain.

China is the world's largest producer and consumer of building materials, the establishment of a complete category, a wide range of services, rich varieties of building materials industry system, the output value of nearly 7 trillion yuan, more than 70,000 kinds of product varieties, cement, flat glass, building sanitary ceramics, stone and wall materials and other major products for many years ranked first in the world. At present, affected by factors such as changes in the domestic and foreign situation and continued weak market demand, many traditional building materials products have overcapacity, and the industry's operating income and economic benefits have declined. High-quality green building materials products maintain a good growth momentum, and it is expected that the operating income of green building materials will exceed 200 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of about 10%. The green building materials industry has become a new growth point for the building materials industry and the main direction for promoting the transformation and upgrading of the industry.

The development of green building materials industry is an important measure for the green and low-carbon transformation of the economy and society. The building materials industry is a typical high-energy-consuming and high-emission industry, and its energy consumption level and carbon emission intensity have always been high. According to the Research Report on Building Energy Consumption and Carbon Emissions in China (2022), the energy consumption in the production stage of building materials accounts for 22.3% of the country's total energy consumption, and carbon emissions account for 28.2% of the country's carbon emissions. Green building materials products have a significant carbon reduction effect. According to the sampling survey of the Technical Committee for Green Building Materials Product Certification, the carbon reduction in the energy-saving link of the production of green building materials products certified in 2021 will be 16.536 million tons, and the application of green building materials can bring 460,000 tons/year of application carbon reduction. Promoting the production and application of green building materials is directly related to the realization of the "double carbon" strategic goal, which is necessary and urgent.

At the same time, with the continuous increase in residents' income, the continuous upgrading of consumption structure, and the increasing awareness of health and environmental protection in recent years, the people's requirements for building materials continue to increase. Green building materials have the characteristics of health, energy saving, emission reduction, safety, convenience and recycling, and are increasingly favored by consumers. In the first half of 2023, the operating income of green building materials products sold on e-commerce platforms increased by 27% year-on-year. The development of green building materials industry is conducive to improving living conditions such as air, noise and humidity, creating a healthy living environment, and better meeting the people's growing needs for a better life.

With the strong support of national policies, the scale of China's green building materials industry continues to expand, the product types continue to be enriched, technological innovation is gradually enhanced, and the application scope continues to expand. By the end of 2023, there will be 12 pilot provinces for green building materials going to the countryside, and the total number of green building materials certification certificates will exceed 9,500. However, the green building materials industry still has problems such as weak innovation ability, insufficient consumption power, imperfect standard system, and non-standard market management.

Promote the two-way interaction between supply and demand. On the supply side, to meet the market demand, we will develop functional green building materials products suitable for different application scenarios such as urban renewal and transformation, prefabricated buildings, sponge city ecological environment restoration, and rural farmhouse construction, so as to enrich the supply of green building materials. On the demand side, we will actively innovate consumption patterns, develop new models of integrated decoration services, new retail formats of home experience halls, and expand the scale of green consumption through the application of demonstration projects, green building materials to the countryside, government procurement policies and other measures, so that green building materials can enter thousands of households.

Accelerate the conversion of old and new kinetic energy. We will vigorously support the traditional building materials industries such as cement, flat glass, and building sanitary ceramics to carry out the integrated application of energy-saving, carbon-reduction and pollution-reducing technologies, accelerate the greening of the production process, and realize the transformation from high-carbon to low-carbon, from traditional building materials to new building materials. Accelerate the deep integration of the whole industrial chain of green building materials and the new generation of information technology, promote the intelligent production, large-scale customization and service-oriented extension of green building materials, cultivate comprehensive green building materials enterprises with strong core competitiveness and great driving role, and enhance the market competitiveness of green building materials.

Promote the coordinated development of software and hardware. In terms of soft environment, guide the whole society to establish the concept of green consumption, widely publicize the good experience and good practices of high-quality development of green building materials, improve industrial support policies, and create a good market environment. In terms of hard constraints, improve and improve the standard system of green building materials, strengthen the publicity of mandatory standards, establish a product traceability standard system, carry out green building materials product certification, strengthen market supervision, and ensure the sustainable development of the industry.

The author is a researcher at the Institute of Industrial and Technical Economics, China Academy of Macroeconomics