Product carbon footprint management making good progress

China has made significant strides in establishing its product carbon footprint management system, with over 70 national standards issued or under development as of the end of 2024, according to a report by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Published by the ministry in a celebration event for the National Low-Carbon Day in Zhejiang provincial capital Hangzhou, the report also revealed that 100 industry-specific standards for product carbon footprint accounting had been unveiled by then.

Furthermore, the country has introduced electricity carbon footprint factors that accurately represent domestic conditions, according to the report.

Electricity carbon footprint factors refer to metrics or coefficients used to estimate the amount of carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production and consumption of electricity.

These standards and factors have "addressed the urgent need for carbon footprint accounting of products across various industries," stressed Pei Xiaofei, a ministry spokesman at a news conference in Beijing on Wednesday.

He said the report is the first document from the ministry that details the progress that has been made in constructing the product carbon footprint management system.