China Issues Zero-Carbon Guidelines Amidst Coal-Power Generation Drop

China's industry and energy regulators have issued new guidelines to accelerate zero-carbon factory construction as Beijing decarbonizes its manufacturing base.

The document, jointly released on January 19 by five government bodies, sets phased targets across key sectors.

By 2027, China aims to build a group of zero-carbon factories in industries such as automobiles, lithium batteries, photovoltaics, electronics, machinery and data centers.

By 2030, the initiative will expand to energy-intensive sectors, including steel, non-ferrous metals, petrochemicals, building materials and textiles.

The six guidelines are standardized carbon accounting, renewable energy use, technology and equipment renewal efficiency upgrades, product-level carbon footprint tracking, digitalized energy and emissions management, and carbon offsets and disclosure.

Notably, this policy push is underpinned by the rapid optimization of China's energy structure.

The latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics shows China's coal-fueled power generation dropping in 2025 for the first time in ten years, despite record coal production, as the frenzy in artificial intelligence drives up electricity usage.

Electricity generated from wind and solar power was up 9.7 percent and 24.4 percent from the previous year. The share of power generated from clean energy reached 35.2 percent, up by 2.1 percentage points.

The share of non-fossil energy in total energy consumption surpassed that of oil and became the nation's second-largest energy source.