China is embarking on a plan to construct zero-carbon industrial parks, a key component of its push toward a greener economy.

This initiative gained prominence at the Central Economic Work Conference in December, where national leaders outlined economic priorities for 2025, placing green transition high on the agenda. The industrial parks are seen as crucial hubs for achieving China's climate goals.

Set to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, China views going green as essential for its modernization efforts.

Zero-carbon industrial park pioneers

While a universally accepted definition of a "zero-carbon industrial park" is still evolving, several Chinese cities started developing their own concepts in 2021.

Ordos City in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has emerged as a forerunner. In 2022, the city said it created the "world's first zero-carbon industrial park" and upgraded it in July 2024. Ordos also established a local standard for zero-carbon industrial parks in 2023, a national first.

The Ordos park now hosts a diverse range of companies, including battery manufacturers, solar panel producers, hydrogen fuel developers and electric vehicle companies.

"The availability of cheap, emission-free electricity is the park's biggest draw," Zhang Yuan, a zero-carbon strategies manager at Envision Group, told The Economic Observer in August.

Scale matters

Building zero-carbon parks can be challenging for many companies and local governments. Achieving small-scale carbon neutrality is challenging and complex, according to Liu Jiagen, deputy chief engineer at the Architectural Design and Research Institute of Tsinghua University.

"It's more challenging for a building than a park, and more challenging for a park than a city," Liu told China Securities Journal in May.

Liu explained that while cities can invest in dedicated renewable energy plants, and industrial parks have the space to install solar panels or other energy-efficient infrastructure, stand-alone buildings face a greater hurdle.

Although the emissions associated with constructing or demolishing a building are relatively low, manufacturing construction materials is a significant contributor.

"Whether these embodied emissions should be included in carbon emission calculations is still a matter of debate," Liu said.

In July 2023, China's Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development released draft technical standards for the country's zero-carbon structures and asked for public opinion. But the standards have yet to be finalized.