The automobile industry in China aims to peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality in the next three decades, according to a government-supervised roadmap released Thursday at the 2023 World New Energy Vehicle Congress in southern China's Hainan Province.

The roadmap, supervised by the country's Ministry of Industries and Information Technology, clarified what kinds of carbon emissions are blamed on the automobile industry, including those emitted during vehicle production, the direct emissions from the fossil fuels burned during the production, and the indirect emissions from buying electricity and heat from outside of the industry.

Automobiles are a major source of carbon emissions in China, said Li Jun, honorary chairman of the China Society of Automobile Engineers, a main composer of the roadmap. As of 2022, automobiles were accountable for about 8 percent of all carbon emissions in the country and 80 percent of the entire emissions from the transportation sector.

The roadmap specified ways to reduce emissions. It said the industry should accelerate the application of new energy technologies among passenger vehicles to reduce the use of fossil fuels. For business vehicles, the use of electric engines and fuel cell should become more popularized.

The industry will also try developing what they call "zero-carbon combustion engines," said the roadmap.