Low carbon emission reduction, standards first.

The standard is the technical basis for achieving carbon peak carbon neutrality, so the construction of the “double carbon” standard system is highly valued by the top-level design. China has issued national standards for greenhouse gas emissions accounting in a number of key industries and project emission reduction assessment standards, and on February 22, the “dual carbon” standard in the industrial sector also has a timetable.

MC-4/11/05/230 According to the official website of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in order to give full play to the leading and normative role of the “standard”, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology organized relevant industry associations, scientific research institutions and standardization technical organizations to prepare the “Guide to the Construction of Carbon Peak Carbon neutral standard System in the Industrial Field” (hereinafter referred to as the “Guide”), and proposed the framework of carbon peak carbon neutral standard system in the industrial field. The development direction of key standards is planned.

Wall Street saw in this “guide” to see that the Ministry of Industry for the initial establishment of the double carbon standard system in the industrial field of the “dead line” is 2025, when more than 200 carbon peak urgently needed standards will be developed.

Its framework includes five categories of standards, including basic general, accounting and verification, technology and equipment, monitoring, management and evaluation, providing technical support for carbon assessment and carbon emission reduction in the industrial field.

By 2030, that is, the deadline of “carbon peak”, it is MC-4/11/05/230 required to form a relatively perfect standard system, including collaborative carbon reduction, carbon emission management, and low-carbon evaluation standards, and support the gradual transformation of standardization work to carbon neutral goals.

Difficulty of accounting

Wall Street noted that the first requirement of the “Guide” is to develop accounting standards, that is, to find out the important basis for the greenhouse gas emissions of various industries in the industrial field, to evaluate the basis for greenhouse gas emission reduction and to evaluate the level of carbon emissions of industries, enterprises and products.

This is related to the more complex and systematic MC-4/11/05/230 dilemma of industrial carbon emission reduction compared with other industries, and how to standardize accounting is the “meta-problem” of scientific emission reduction.

“Taking a factory as an example, it is first necessary to determine the core process of production and a clear carbon emission accounting boundary, and it is also necessary to clarify the types and sources of raw materials and energy in the industrial production process, such as oil, coal, minerals, etc. as raw materials and reducing agents supplied to the factory, and carbon-containing raw materials in the process production process will produce direct carbon emissions due to processing and conversion. Most of the energy supply produced by the plant is burned by fossil fuels, which produces a lot of carbon dioxide and is also a direct carbon emission.” Shi Chunyan, an associate researcher at the Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, said.

The factory production process also needs power supply, such as pumps, compressors and other electrical equipment and factory lighting, electricity does not directly produce carbon dioxide, but the fossil energy power generation process will produce carbon emissions, so electricity as a secondary energy source, in industrial production belongs to indirect carbon emissions.

“Other carbon emissions implied by the consumption of purchased heat and steam also belong to indirect carbon emissions. Carbon accounting needs to collect the production activity data of each carbon source in the industrial process, and calculate carbon emissions by referring to the corresponding emission source formula after selecting and obtaining the carbon emission factor. When the system boundary includes different industries, the accounting boundary of each industry is different, and the carbon emission data is also different. Some industries only calculate the direct carbon emission, some will add indirect carbon emission, and some will include the carbon emission generated by production activities outside the system, such as the transportation fuel emission of raw materials to the factory. Others account for indirect emissions from the use of electricity in factory buildings, resulting in double counting of emissions across different industries.” Shi Chunyan pointed out.

For example, the indirect emissions of electricity, the power sector has accounted for the carbon emissions of the power generation process, but other industries in the accounting in order to highlight the integrity of the industry, will also account for the indirect emissions of electricity, the transportation sector fuel carbon emissions accounting is the same. On the other hand, the accounting boundary is different, the accounting result data will also be very different, and the top-level coordination by the Ministry of industry to formulate a unified standard is imminent.