China will cultivate 500 national-level zero-carbon factories.

Title context: Text: China's promotion of zero-carbon factory construction does not require enterprises to achieve absolute zero emissions at the current stage, but rather to genuinely reduce carbon emissions through technological innovation, structural adjustment, and management optimization, continuously lowering them and gradually moving toward zero. Being selected for the national-level zero-carbon factory construction list does not mean that a zero-carbon factory has already been built; it still requires continuous technological upgrading in accordance with the construction plan, ultimately followed by evaluation and acceptance. The core indicators look at both the level to which carbon emissions have been reduced and what changes have occurred in the energy structure. The Guiding Opinions on Carrying Out Zero-Carbon Factory Construction Work clearly set out the implementation of phased, tiered cultivation. Starting in 2026, China will begin selecting a batch of zero-carbon factories to play a benchmark and demonstration role; by 2027, it will prioritize cultivating and building a batch of zero-carbon factories in industries with relatively lower decarbonization difficulty, such as automobiles, lithium batteries, photovoltaics, electronics and electrical appliances, light industry, machinery, and computing facilities; by 2030, the scope of construction will gradually expand to energy-intensive industries such as steel, nonferrous metals, petrochemicals and chemicals, building materials, and textiles, exploring new pathways for decarbonizing traditional industries. Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the Implementation Plan for Accelerating the Construction of a Dual-Control Work System for Carbon Emissions in the Industry and Information Technology Sector, proposing that by 2030, approximately 400 carbon footprint accounting rules and standards for key industrial products will be formulated and implemented, about 500 national-level zero-carbon factories and zero-carbon computing facilities will be built, and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of value-added of industrial enterprises above designated size will be reduced by more than 17% compared with 2025.