Unified carbon emission accounting system will be established by 2023, with improvements until 2025.
China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) have published plans for standardising its statistics and accounts system for carbon emissions.
The plan proposes that by 2023, China will have established a unified and standardised carbon emission statistical and accounting system, as well as interdepartmental coordination mechanisms for recording and maintaining carbon emissions statistics.
The quality of data in the system will be further improved by 2025, ensuring comprehensive, scientific and reliable data is available to support China’s work towards achieving peak carbon by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060, the plan says.
The NDRC set up a carbon emission statistical accounting working group in August last year, to accelerate the establishment of a unified and standardised carbon emission statistical accounting system.
The plan says that the new system will apply across all of China’s provinces, and will improve the carbon emission accounting mechanism for all industries and enterprises.
The NBS will formulate national and provincial-level statistical computation methods for carbon emissions, as well as calculate the annual tally of carbon emissions in China.
The MEE, the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and other industry authorities will be tasked with tailoring the computation methods and relevant national standards to key industries such as electric power, steel, nonferrous metals, building materials, petrochemicals, chemicals and construction.
The MEE will also collect data, produce reports, conduct international evaluations, and establish a GHG inventory system, in collaboration with other relevant ministries.
A national greenhouse gas emissions factor database will also be created, which is an “important parameter for statistical accounting”.
