Shanghai's industrial enterprises have been accelerating their decarbonization process by transforming the production process with digital technologies in recent years. At the ongoing 2023 Shanghai International Carbon Neutrality Expo, the first of its kind in China, many enterprises have shared their emission reduction plans.

Since the beginning of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021), the energy consumption per unit value of Shanghai's above-scale industrial enterprises has decreased by 13.8 percent, 16.9 percent down from the cumulative reduction of the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), said Zhang Hongtao, the vice chairman of Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, when sharing data at the low-carbon industry forum on the sidelines of the expo on Monday.

Shanghai's government-led initiatives

As the forerunner in the digitization and carbon emission reduction for manufacturers, Shanghai has adopted three approaches to fast-forward the process. These include building green-energy-based new infrastructures, constructing a supply chain system where manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, and customers work together efficiently and effectively in an environmentally friendly way, with a focus on reducing carbon emissions, and policy guidance for promoting academic research in the field.

In 2021, Shanghai launched a green manufacturing system construction plan in echoing the country's call for efforts for overall green transformation of the economy and society. The plan aimed at fostering more than 200 green enterprises, 30 zero-carbon factories and 5 zero-carbon parks by 2025. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Shanghai successfully completed the first round of green manufacturing system construction with 100 green factories, 20 green parks, 11 green supply chains, and 116 green products recorded.

Among them, some energy and industry enterprises are taking the lead in the development and implementation of green manufacturing.

Shanghai Electric debuted a range of new technologies at the expo that covers innovations in wind power, solar power, hydrogen energy and energy storage. The company rolled out a huge 16+ MW offshore wind turbine that can generate 66 million kWh of power which offsets over 50,000 tonnes of carbon emissions and liquid flow batteries with single stack capacity of 65 kW. The company also unveiled its self-developed hydrogen generating technology that can generate 2,500 standard cubic meters of hydrogen each hour through water electrolysis, outperforming international benchmarks by 2.5 times in terms of efficiency.

As for carbon emission for industry manufacturers, China Baowu Steel, the world's largest steel producer, said that it will achieve carbon peak this year. The company hit the target with its innovations in the blast furnace that was specially engineered to cut down solid fuel consumption by 30 percent, decreasing carbon emissions from pig iron by 21 percent, and increasing pig iron production by 7 percent. It aims to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 through technological revolution and process reengineering.

SMEs as key roles

Additionally, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are key parts of Shanghai's green manufacturing system. 

Lin Qingxuan, a cosmetics company, is building the first "carbon-neutral factory" in the city where all of its electricity is generated from on-site photovoltaic facilities. The factory also installs a smart energy efficiency platform that can track all the electricity consumption, green power production, and carbon emissions data in real-time.

Eco-atlas, a startup that provides green solutions for data centers through immersion cooling technology, targets the offset energy consumption in servers created by the increasing demand from the use of artificial intelligence. The company said that its cooling solutions can reduce energy consumption by 50 percent.

And analysts believe that SMEs are better at providing low-carbon services, particularly for digital carbon emission management.

"Digital tools such as carbon emission tracking systems can help businesses track carbon emission indicators comprehensively, promote corporate transformation and product innovation, and create a 'zero-carbon future,'" said Li Zhijun, China ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) Digitalization Partner of PwC China, when giving remarks at the low-carbon industry forum.