Focus on cement and other industries! Guangdong Releases Key Plan for Energy-saving and Carbon Reduction

Recently, the Guangdong Development and Reform Commission and other six departments jointly issued the "Three-year Action Plan for Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction in Key Industries of Guangdong Province" (Guangdong Development and Reform Energy [2026] 290) to implement the three-year action plan for energy conservation and carbon reduction in key industries of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) (Development and Reform Environmental Resources [2026] 698). Energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation of cement and other industries is one of the key areas. The plan puts forward work requirements for the development and reform, industry and telecommunications, ecological environment and other departments of various cities, and supports green financial support measures.

1. All localities and departments shall strengthen their territorial responsibilities, formulate energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation plans for key industries in the region, refine work measures, strengthen daily scheduling, and ensure the effectiveness of various tasks. Energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation tasks in all regions shall include, but not be limited to, the reserve list of transformation plan projects attached to the Action Plan.

2. Enterprises in key industries are the main body responsible for the implementation of energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation. They should focus on the objectives and tasks of energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation, sort out the outstanding problems of energy utilization and the application potential of high-efficiency energy-saving technology and equipment, and refine the transformation content, implementation path and time limit arrangement; Make full use of market-oriented modes such as contract energy management, eliminate backward equipment according to regulations, and accelerate the implementation of transformation and upgrading. State-owned enterprises should actively implement the target task of energy saving and carbon reduction transformation and strive to complete it ahead of schedule.

3. Local energy-saving authorities should take the lead in working with relevant departments to strengthen the daily dispatch and supervision of energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation in key industries in the region, organize and carry out special supervision on the implementation of energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation in key industries, and verify the energy consumption per unit product and the energy efficiency of key energy-using equipment in enterprises. The supervision results shall be formed before the end of October each year as an important basis for the implementation of investment, price and other supporting policies; the completion of energy saving and carbon reduction transformation objectives of enterprises in key industries in the region shall be submitted to the Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Provincial Energy Bureau before the end of December each year, and copied to the Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, the Provincial Department of Ecological Environment, the Provincial State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and the Guangdong Branch of the People's Bank of China.

Guangdong Provincial Development and Reform Commission Guangdong Provincial Energy Bureau

Guangdong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology Department

of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province, State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of

the People's Government of Guangdong Province, Guangdong Branch

of the People's Bank of China, September 7

, 2026, the three-year action plan

for energy conservation and carbon reduction transformation of key industries in Guangdong Province is as follows: To implement the requirements of the Notice of the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments on the Three-year Action of Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction in Key Industries (FGHZ [2026] No.698) and the work deployment of the provincial government, to further promote the transformation of energy conservation and carbon reduction in key industries, to intensify efforts to tackle key problems, and to strongly support our province to complete the "15th Five-Year Plan" energy conservation and carbon reduction target task, this plan is formulated in combination with the actual situation.

First, the overall requirements

are guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, comprehensively implement the spirit of the 20th and 20th Plenary sessions of the CPC, implement the deployment of the Central Economic Work Conference, conscientiously implement the specific deployment of the "1310" of the Provincial Party Committee, adhere to the general tone of steady and progressive work, and strive to build a well-off society in an all-round way. Completely, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development concept, consistently adhere to the policy of giving priority to conservation, further promote energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation in key industries, comprehensively improve the level of energy efficiency and carbon efficiency in the industry, accelerate the pace of green and low-carbon transformation, provide strong support for promoting and achieving carbon peak, and make room for high-quality economic and social development. By the end of 2028, the proportion of production capacity of key industries such as steel, cement, glass, petrochemical, chemical, ceramics, textile and papermaking will increase by an average of 20 percentage points, and the coal and electricity industry will strive to increase by 15 percentage points. The average power utilization efficiency of data centers is reduced to 1.

2. Key tasks

(1) Steel industry. We will promote the transformation of key processes and devices such as blast furnaces and converters to save energy and reduce carbon emissions, promote the application of technologies such as high-efficiency coking and coke dry quenching, large-scale pelletizing of blast furnaces, molten iron from one tank to the bottom, and one-step steelmaking of converters, carry out the application of new low-carbon metallurgical technologies in an orderly manner, develop hydrogen-based shaft furnace technology, implement the transformation and upgrading of waste heat recovery and waste energy power generation, and strengthen the recovery and utilization of by-product gas and waste heat and pressure. Speed up the general equipment such as motors, fans, pumps, heat pumps, boilers, oxygen generators, air compressors, transformers and top-loading coke ovens with a coking chamber height of less than 6 meters (less than 5.

(II) Cement industry. Promote cement

(3) Glass industry. We will promote energy-saving and carbon-reducing renovation of key installations such as glass furnaces and kilns, promote technologies such as all-oxygen (oxygen-enriched) combustion of glass furnaces, structural optimization and high-efficiency thermal insulation of glass furnaces, and high-efficiency utilization of waste heat of flue gas from glass furnaces, strengthen the application of high-efficiency low-nitrogen burners, gradient composite thermal insulation and high-radiation energy-saving coatings, and support the implementation of natural gas and electrification. Encourage the use of self-owned facilities and sites to implement waste heat and pressure utilization and distributed power generation, and improve the application level of green power in the processes of batching, melting, stirring, forming and transportation. Speed up the upgrading of energy-using equipment such as motors, fans, pumps, heat pumps and transformers. Projects using low-efficiency glass furnaces, traditional air-assisted combustion and coal combustion processes should speed up the transformation and upgrading.

(4) Petrochemical industry. We will promote the deep transformation of core refining processes such as atmospheric and vacuum distillation, catalytic cracking, continuous reforming, hydrocracking, delayed coking, hydrogen production and hydrogenation, as well as energy-saving and carbon-reducing production units such as aromatics, ethylene cracking, propane dehydrogenation, styrene, ethylene oxide/ethylene glycol, and accelerate the promotion of high-efficiency catalytic cracking flue gas turbines and low-carbon deep processing of heavy and inferior residues. We will implement clean substitution of fossil fuels, green hydrogen substitution, biomass co-combustion, carbon capture and utilization, and electrification of energy-using systems. We will accelerate the upgrading of old devices, steam pipe networks, motors, boilers, transformers, air separation stations, transmission and distribution systems, and coordinate the optimization of heat exchange networks, low-grade heat utilization, steam power systems, etc. Oil refining enterprises are encouraged to replace existing self-contained coal-fired units with public power, large-scale cogeneration of heat and power, central heating and steam supply, and clean energy. Units and processes such as atmospheric and vacuum distillation below 10 million tons/year, catalytic cracking below 1.5 million tons/year, continuous reforming below 1 million tons/year, hydrocracking below 1.5 million tons/year, naphtha cracking below 800000 tons/year to ethylene, and open delayed coking should be upgraded.

(5) Coal and electricity industry. We will carry out the work of shutting down and decommissioning old coal-fired power units and replacing them with the same capacity in an orderly manner. We will promote energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation of coal-fired power units with a capacity of more than 300000 kilowatts, promote technologies such as flow passage, efficient combustion, cold end optimization, waste heat utilization and intelligent regulation, speed up the upgrading of energy-using equipment such as fans, heat pumps, boilers, steam turbines and transformers, and reduce the coal consumption of power supply units by more than 5 grams of standard coal per kilowatt-hour after transformation. Implementing the special action requirements for upgrading the new generation of coal-fired power, promoting the transformation of efficient regulation capacity of coal-fired power, such as fast regulation, deep regulation and wide load, and encouraging the integration of coal-fired power and new energy. Combining with the actual operation characteristics of regional power grid and the endowment of biomass or renewable energy resources, we will promote the low-carbon transformation and construction of coal-fired power units with more than 300000 kilowatts in service by means of biomass coupling, CCUS, blending green ammonia, coupling new energy, and installing energy storage and heat storage facilities. After the transformation, the carbon emissions per kilowatt hour will be reduced by 10% -20%, striving to reduce by more than 20%.

(6) Ceramic industry. Promote energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation of forming, drying and firing processes, and promote technologies such as low-temperature and fast-firing technology of ceramic tiles (plates), energy-saving kilns and high-efficiency firing, low-energy and high-efficiency utilization of waste heat. Coal-fired alternative processes for electric kilns and spray towers should be actively applied to increase the proportion of clean energy consumption. Speed up the upgrading of general equipment such as motors, fans, pumps, heat pumps, air compressors and transformers.

(7) Textile industry. We will promote energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation of spinning, weaving, dyeing and setting processes, and promote technologies such as waste heat recovery of exhaust gas from setting machines, ultra-low bath ratio dyeing machines, condensate water recovery, waste heat recovery of high-temperature sewage, and precise reuse of hot water supply. Speed up the upgrading of general equipment such as motors, fans, pumps, heat pumps, air compressors and transformers.

(8) Paper industry. Promote energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation of pressing and drying processes, and promote waste heat recovery and utilization, boot pressing and other technologies. We will promote the work of "coal to gas" in self-owned power plants of papermaking enterprises in an orderly manner, explore and carry out electrification transformation, and make full use of solar energy and biomass energy such as waste liquid and waste residue from papermaking. Speed up the upgrading of general equipment such as motors, fans, pumps, heat pumps, air compressors and transformers.

(9) Data center industry.We will accelerate the renovation of old data centers, replace the cooling system with high-efficiency air conditioning and transform the air flow organization, and encourage the energy-saving renovation of closed cold and hot channels and the combination of air cooling and natural cooling. Encourage the transformation of data centers to intelligent computing centers, support the integration of low-density cabinets into high-density cabinets, and adopt cooling liquid cooling, immersion liquid cooling and modular power supply to improve overall energy efficiency.

3. Safeguard measures

(1) Strengthen financial support. Relevant provincial departments strive for greater support from the central budget and ultra-long-term special treasury bonds, giving priority to energy-saving and carbon-reducing renovation projects with energy efficiency reaching the benchmark level after renovation. At the provincial level, we should make good use of special funds for technological transformation and green low-carbon development, and encourage local governments to use existing funding channels to support the implementation of energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation projects in key industries. We will implement preferential tax policies for special energy-saving equipment, technological transformation and comprehensive utilization of resources. (Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Provincial Industry and Information Technology Department, Provincial Finance Department, Provincial Energy Bureau, Provincial Tax Bureau and other departments shall implement the division of responsibilities)

(2) Improve price guidance and regulation. Taking into account the implementation of capacity and output control policies, the level of energy consumption and carbon emissions, the level of environmental performance and other factors, a unified differentiated electricity price policy is implemented. At the end of each year, provincial energy-saving authorities issue to power grid enterprises a list of project enterprises whose energy efficiency in key industries such as iron and steel, cement, flat glass, oil refining and ethylene has not reached the mandatory energy consumption limit standard or benchmark level, which will be implemented on January 1 of the next year. On the basis of the market transaction price, the relevant enterprises will be charged 0. The project enterprises whose subsequent energy efficiency indicators reach the limit value and benchmark level of the quota standard will stop charging the differential price in the second month after the approval. (Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, Provincial Energy Bureau, Guangdong Power Grid Company and Shenzhen Power Supply Bureau shall implement the division of responsibilities)

(3) Strengthen the management of carbon emission replacement. After the implementation of energy-saving and carbon-reducing transformation, the annual carbon emissions of industrial enterprises in stock will be reduced by 2025, which will be approved by the Provincial Development and Reform Commission in conjunction with relevant departments as the replacement source of carbon emissions for new (renovated and expanded) "two high" industrial projects in the region. (Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, Provincial Energy Bureau and other departments shall implement the division of responsibilities)