The Jiangsu Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Jiangsu Department of Industry and Information Technology have recently jointly issued the Implementation Plan for the Development of Zero-Carbon Parks in Jiangsu Province, kicking off the application for provincial-level zero-carbon parks.

The Plan sets clear development targets. By 2030, Jiangsu will foster roughly 10 provincial-level zero-carbon parks. The parks will see continuous improvement in their green energy structure and basically form a green and low-carbon industrial system with markedly enhanced energy and carbon management capacity. A package of replicable and scalable practices will be developed. By 2035, a zero-carbon industrial ecosystem centered on industrial parks will take initial shape, and the international green competitiveness of industries will be greatly boosted.

The Plan lays out seven key tasks: improving energy efficiency management, accelerating low-carbon transition of the energy structure, advancing the green upgrading of infrastructure, speeding up green transformation of production modes, vigorously developing the circular economy, strengthening parks’ energy and carbon management capacity, and scaling up innovative application of low- and zero-carbon technologies. For energy efficiency management, strict thresholds will be imposed on the access of high-energy-consumption and high-emission projects. Equivalent carbon emission replacement will be enforced. Customized plans will be rolled out for individual enterprises to carry out energy-saving and carbon-reduction retrofits, pushing energy-intensive enterprises to catch up with industrial benchmarks. In terms of energy structure, efforts will be made to vigorously develop distributed photovoltaics, promote new technologies such as perovskite photovoltaics, small wind turbines and hydrogen energy, advance deep integration of source-grid-load-storage systems, and encourage park-based enterprises to purchase green power and green certificates. Regarding the green transformation of production modes, the province will explore the “green for green” model, whereby green‑energy‑generated electricity is used to manufacture green low‑carbon products, further build zero-waste parks, set up integrated energy and carbon management platforms, strengthen carbon accounting, carbon footprint tracking and ESG disclosure, and actively promote innovation and scenario deployment of low- and zero-carbon technologies including direct green power connection.