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A national standard for the general requirements of zero-carbon factories has been approved recently. Good news has emerged in the field of zero-carbon factory construction: China’s first standard in the basic general category related to zero-carbon factories, namely \"General Requirements for Zero-Carbon Factories\" (hereinafter referred to as the \"General Requirements\"), has been officially approved. This will provide a \"uniform standard\" for the construction of zero-carbon factories. Duan Miao, director of the Certification Center at the China Electronics Standardization Institute, the lead organization responsible for drafting these standards, said in an interview that the establishment of these \"General Requirements\" marks a new phase in the standardization of zero-carbon factories. It will focus on the fundamental, universal, and regulatory requirements involved in the construction of such factories, aiming to develop unified terminology definitions, basic principles, overall requirements, and general methods. These will provide a technical basis for local authorities, industries, and enterprises to carry out the construction of zero-carbon factories in a standardized manner. Companies have shown strong enthusiasm; there is an urgent need to improve the standard system. Since the goals of achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality were set, regions such as Shanghai and Guangdong, along with relevant industry associations and third-party organizations, have begun efforts to develop and evaluate zero-carbon factories. To date, more than 30 relevant group standards have been issued, reflecting a trend in which group standards take the lead and local pilot projects are active, with a number of exemplary cases of zero-carbon factory construction emerging. “For reasons such as reducing costs and increasing efficiency, enhancing brand value, and promoting product exports, companies have a strong desire to establish zero-carbon factories, but there are still some constraints. ”Duan Miao said that an imperfect standard system will hinder the development of zero-carbon factory construction. He further explained that the lack of uniform standards leads to differences in the understanding and implementation of these standards among enterprises in different regions and industries; some companies may take advantage of the ambiguity in these standards to engage in \"greenwashing\" practices, thereby undermining the credibility of zero-carbon factory construction. Enterprises in different industries exhibit distinct characteristics in terms of carbon emissions, and there are significant differences in the technical approaches to building zero-carbon factories. The lack of a basis for construction as well as industry benchmarks that can serve as references may force enterprises to engage in blind attempts, thereby increasing transformation costs and risks. At the same time, currently there is a focus on re-evaluating existing zero-carbon factories rather than building new ones. Some companies rely mainly on purchasing carbon credits and green certificates to achieve a nominal state of \"zero carbon,\" without actually carrying out any efforts to save energy and reduce carbon emissions. Some third-party certification bodies fail to adequately assess the approaches and quality of companies’ efforts to build zero-carbon factories, and issue such certificates to them without proper oversight; as a result, there is a lack of effective regulation in the certification process for zero-carbon factories. Standardization efforts have seen more detailed requirements in three areas. In January this year, five departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the \"Guiding Opinions on Carrying Out the Construction of Zero-Carbon Factories\" (hereinafter referred to as the \"Guiding Opinions\"), which clearly outlined the overall requirements and implementation approaches for building zero-carbon factories, thereby further improving the institutional framework at the higher level. “The \"General Requirements\" will strictly adhere to the relevant requirements set out in the \"Guiding Opinions\", and play a role in \"unifying, simplifying, coordinating, and selecting the best options\" to facilitate the development of the industry through standards. ”Duan Miao said that the requirements for building zero-carbon factories will be further clarified from three aspects. First, clarify the connotation and extension of zero-carbon factories. Currently, different standards do not provide a unified definition of zero-carbon factories. There are still disputes regarding whether such factories need to achieve a \"net zero\" level of carbon emissions within their premises, as well as concerning the methods and proportions for offsetting those emissions. It is urgent to clarify the concept of zero-carbon factories and define their construction objectives through appropriate standards. Second, refine the roadmap for building zero-carbon factories. The \"General Requirements\" will further detail the approach to building zero-carbon factories as outlined in the \"Guiding Principles\" – namely, scientific carbon accounting, carbon reduction at the source, decarbonization during production processes, coordinated efforts to reduce carbon emissions, intelligent carbon management, and continuous improvement – by proposing practical and easy-to-implement measures to guide enterprises in systematically advancing the construction of zero-carbon factories. Third, improve the indicator system for zero-carbon factories. The “General Requirements” will be accompanied by an index system for zero-carbon factories, which uses quantitative indicators to assess the effectiveness of enterprises in building zero-carbon factories. At the same time, by specifying the target values and baseline values for various quantitative indicators in the zero-carbon factory standards tailored to different industries, enterprises are guided to achieve continuous improvement in their “carbon” performance through benchmarking, meeting standards, and striving to exceed them. Based on scientific carbon accounting, it drives coordinated carbon reduction across the entire industrial chain. In accordance with the guidelines, by 2030, the construction of zero-carbon factories will be gradually extended to industries such as petrochemicals and chemicals. Looking ahead to the development of zero-carbon factories, Duan Miao emphasized that establishing a scientific and unified carbon emission accounting system and conducting accurate carbon calculations are the foundations. The ultimate goal, however, is to build zero-carbon factories by managing the carbon footprint of key products, promoting coordinated carbon reduction across the entire supply chain, and achieving continuous improvement in carbon performance. He added that increasing the use of renewable energy and raising the level of electrification to reduce carbon emissions at the source, improving energy efficiency and reducing emissions during processes to achieve decarbonization in those processes, as well as using digital technologies for precise and intelligent management of energy and carbon emissions, are all effective measures for building zero-carbon factories. In the future, building zero-carbon factories will require continuous efforts in improving standard systems, enhancing policy support, and strengthening regulatory oversight, in order to create a number of high-quality model enterprises for zero-carbon manufacturing. This includes formulating guidelines for the construction of zero-carbon factories in various industries, as well as improving relevant standards in the field of \"dual carbon\" goals, such as those for carbon emission accounting, product carbon footprint calculation, and digital energy and carbon management ； Increase efforts in research and development as well as the promotion of technologies related to carbon reduction, zero carbon emissions, and negative carbon emissions, in order to develop a range of replicable and easily implementable system solutions for zero-carbon factories ； Strengthen supervision over third-party certification agencies to maintain the credibility of zero-carbon factory construction and market order.