中国海外园区的低碳评估低碳发展指标体系的开发与应用
工作论文 | 2022年7月 | 3
Introduction
China is now accelerating the low-carbon transition by
having “carbon peak & neutrality” integrated into the
economic and social development domestically. Globally,
192 countries have submitted their NDCs, and 137 countries
have committed to carbon neutrality targets (ECIU,
2021). Additionally, China’s promotion of the green Belt
and Road Initiative (BRI) construction directs China’s
overseas investment, which impacts the international green
development performance to a large extent, given its scale
of cumulative outward foreign direct investment.
China’s overseas industrial parks not only play a critical
role in boosting the development of China’s overseas
markets and the construction of global value chains,
but also reflect how green BRI is conducted in the real
world, considering they tend to be energy-intensive
areas with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions lock-in
effect for a long service lifetime. The unique and key
function of China’s overseas industrial parks is indicated
in official documents and policies as well. In July 2021,
the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Ecology
and Environment jointly issued the Guidelines for Green
Development of Foreign Investment Cooperation,
proposing to build and construct green overseas
economic and trade cooperation zones (OETZs, official
title of overseas industrial parks), and improve the
level of the green development of OETZs. The 14th
Five-Year Plan for the Development of Commerce
issued by the Ministry of Commerce also emphasizes
the need to enhance the sustainable development of
outward investment and cooperation projects, and take
the promotion of green development of OETZs as a key
initiative and an important starting point, for a higher
level of outward investment and cooperation.
About this working paper
Different from the “ carbon peak & neutrality “ practice
of domestic industrial parks in China, the low-carbon
development of China’s overseas industrial parks is just
starting up. Guidelines and indicator-systems policies
for low-carbon development targeting China’s overseas
industrial parks have not yet been established. In addition,
for 201 China’s overseas parks commonly mentioned
in public or media reports, there is no research that
systematically analyze their low carbon performance,
which makes an incomplete picture of the state of play,
and hinders the formulation and promulgation of relevant
policies as well. In response to these, WRI initiates the
development of a Low-Carbon Development Indicator
System (LCDIS) for China’s overseas industrial parks
in this working paper, and evaluates the low-carbon
performance of these parks by applying LCDIS.
Research Methods
The working paper narrows down its subject, targeting
China’s overseas industrial parks with a focus on their
low carbon performance. LCDIS is established with
medium- and long-term systems, as well as low-carbon
development current-status evaluation index system,
which delivers the quantified criteria with three-tier
indicators. Literature review and consultant interviews
are conducted to summarize the existing low-carbon
index systems for industrial parks and formed an index
pool with candidate indicators. We invited preeminent
academics in this field to score the candidate indicators
by holding seminars, systematically identified the
multi-layer graded indexes in three tiers-- criteria level,
target level and indicator level covering: a) low-carbon
economy, b) energy use, c) resource use, d) low-carbon
facilities and e) low-carbon management. The indicators
are confirmed and adjusted according to the actual
situation through field research in industrial parks’
developers and operators, and finally determined in
a seminar with multi- stakeholder participation from
policy makers, research think tanks and industrial parks.
Applying LCDIS, this working paper constructs an index
for the low-carbon development of China’s overseas
industrial parks and conducts a comparative assessment
with 60 overseas industrial parks.
Structure of this working paper
This working paper contains four parts: Chapter 1 briefs
the scope of China’s overseas industrial parks, associated
policies, and the role of industrial parks in low-carbon
development; Chapter 2 elaborates on the principles,
methods, structure, and scope of the application of
LCDIS; Chapter 3 is an application of the overseas
park low-carbon development index system described
in Chapter 2, stating the subjects, data sources, low-
carbon development index methodology of China’s
overseas industrial parks low-carbon evaluation and
corresponding conclusions; Chapter 4 offer five specific
recommendations for diversified stakeholders.
The LCDIS development process goes through more
layers, the methodologies of the index system study
and the industrial park evaluation process are detailed