On May 30, the Ministry of Finance issued the "Opinions on Financial Support for Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutralization", stating that by 2025, fiscal policy tools will continue to be enriched, and a fiscal and tax policy framework conducive to green and low-carbon development will be initially established, which will be effective. Support all regions and industries to accelerate green and low-carbon transformation.  

The opinions propose to support the optimization and adjustment of the transportation structure, vigorously support the development of new energy vehicles, improve the supporting policies for charging and replacing infrastructure, and steadily promote the demonstration and application of fuel cell vehicles.

The original text is as follows:

Opinions on financial support for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality

In order to thoroughly implement the major strategic decision of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, in accordance with the "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Completely, Accurately and Comprehensively Implementing the New Development Concept and Doing a Good Job in Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutralization" and "Carbon Neutralization Before 2030" Dafeng Action Plan (Guo Fa [2021] No. 23) related work deployment, hereby put forward the following opinions on the financial support for the carbon neutralization of Carbon Dafeng.

1. General requirements

(1) Guiding ideology.

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the 19th Plenary Sessions, thoroughly implement Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization, follow the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and adhere to the general tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability. Based on the new development stage, fully, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development concept, build a new development pattern, promote high-quality development, adhere to the system concept, and incorporate the carbon neutralization work into the overall layout of ecological civilization construction and the overall economic and social development. Adhere to the coordinated promotion of carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and growth, actively build a fiscal and taxation policy system that is conducive to promoting efficient use of resources and green and low-carbon development, promote better integration between promising governments and effective markets, and support the realization of carbon peaks as scheduled Neutralize the target.

(2) Working principles.

Based on the present, focus on the long-term. Focusing on the goal of achieving carbon peaking and carbon neutrality as scheduled, strengthen the connection between fiscal support policies and the national "14th Five-Year Plan" outline, seize the critical period and window period of the "14th Five-Year" carbon peaking work, and implement proactive fiscal policy requirements. Improve efficiency, pay more attention to precise and sustainable requirements, and rationally plan financial support for carbon peaking and carbon neutral policy system.

Adjust measures to local conditions and make coordinated progress. The local financial departments take overall consideration of the local work foundation and actual situation, advance the work in a stable and orderly manner, implement classified policies, and formulate and implement financial support measures that meet both their own actual conditions and overall requirements. Strengthen the overall planning of financial resources, and implement the direct mechanism of financial funds on a regular basis. Promote the coordinated development of policies such as capital, taxation, and government procurement to improve the effectiveness of fiscal policy.

Result-oriented, reward the good and punish the bad. Strengthen budget constraints and performance management, and the central government will give incentives and support to regions with outstanding achievements in promoting relevant work; appropriately deduct relevant transfer payment funds for regions that are not active or have not achieved obvious results in promoting relevant work, forming an incentive and restraint mechanism.

Strengthen communication, smooth internal and external. Adhere to the principles of common but differentiated responsibilities, fairness and respective capabilities, strengthen multilateral and bilateral international financial dialogue and cooperation, coordinate domestic and international resources, promote advanced green and low-carbon technologies and experiences at home and abroad, deeply participate in global climate governance, and actively strive for International resource support.

(3) Main objectives.

By 2025, fiscal policy tools will continue to be enriched, and a fiscal and tax policy framework conducive to green and low-carbon development will be initially established, which will strongly support all regions and industries to accelerate green and low-carbon transformation. Before 2030, a fiscal and taxation policy system conducive to green and low-carbon development will be basically formed, a long-term mechanism to promote green and low-carbon development will be gradually established, and the goal of peaking carbon will be successfully achieved. Before 2060, the policy system of financial support for green and low-carbon development will be mature and sound, and the goal of carbon neutrality will be promoted smoothly.

2. Support key directions and areas

(1) Support the construction of a clean, low-carbon, safe and efficient energy system. Orderly reduce and replace, and promote the transformation and upgrading of coal consumption. Optimize clean energy support policies, vigorously support the high-proportion application of renewable energy, and promote the construction of a new power system with a gradually increasing proportion of new energy. Support photovoltaics, wind power, biomass energy and other renewable energy sources, as well as new energy sources with stable output to replace fossil energy. Improve support policies to encourage unconventional natural gas exploration to increase production. Encourage qualified regions to take the lead and develop new energy storage, pumped storage, etc. according to local conditions, and accelerate the formation of a power development mechanism supported by energy storage and peak shaving capabilities. Strengthen energy-saving supervision of key industries and key equipment, and organize energy measurement reviews.

(2) Support the green and low-carbon transformation of key industries. Support the development of the industrial sector towards high-end, intelligent, green, and advanced manufacturing. We will deepen the creation of demonstration counties for the integration of urban and rural transportation, and improve the level of equalization of urban and rural transportation services. Support optimization and adjustment of transportation structure. Vigorously support the development of new energy vehicles, improve the supporting policies for charging and replacing infrastructure, and steadily promote the demonstration and application of fuel cell vehicles. Promote the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, continue to carry out comprehensive management of coal-fired boilers and industrial furnaces, expand the scope of support for clean heating in winter in northern regions, and encourage the use of clean energy for heating and heating according to local conditions. Support the energy-saving renovation of existing urban residential buildings and farm buildings in northern heating areas, and promote the realization of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality in urban and rural construction. Continue to promote the replacement of electric energy in the fields of industry, transportation, construction, agriculture and rural areas, and implement "replacing coal with electricity" and "replacing oil with electricity".

(3) Support green and low-carbon technological innovation and basic capacity building. Strengthen support for the research and development, promotion and application of green technologies such as low carbon, zero carbon and negative carbon, energy conservation and environmental protection. Encourage qualified units, enterprises and regions to carry out low-carbon, zero-carbon and negative carbon and energy storage new materials, new technologies, and new equipment to tackle key problems, as well as industrialization and large-scale applications, and establish and improve green and low-carbon technology assessment, trading systems and technological innovations Service Platform. Strengthen the research on the basic theory, basic methods, technical standards, and realization paths of carbon neutralization. Strengthen the basic support of ecosystem carbon sinks. Support capacity building to adapt to climate change and improve disaster prevention and mitigation capacity.

(4) Support green and low-carbon life and resource conservation. Develop a circular economy, promote the comprehensive utilization of resources, and strengthen the utilization of urban and rural garbage and rural waste resources. Improve the recycling system of waste and old materials, and promote the recycling and utilization of renewable resources to improve quality and efficiency. Establish and improve the extended producer responsibility system for automobiles, electrical and electronic products, and promote the healthy development of the renewable resource recycling industry. Promote the resource utilization of crop straw and livestock and poultry manure, and promote the recycling and utilization of plastic film. Support the construction of "no-waste cities" and form a batch of replicable and generalizable experience models.

(5) Support the consolidation and improvement of carbon sink capacity. Support the improvement of ecological carbon sink capacity in forests, grasslands, wetlands, and oceans. Carry out integrated protection and restoration of mountains, rivers, forests, fields, lakes, grasses and sands. Implement major projects to protect and restore important ecosystems. Deeply promote large-scale land greening actions, comprehensively protect natural forests, consolidate the achievements of returning farmland to forests and grasslands, support forest resource management and forest and grassland fire prevention and control, strengthen grassland ecological restoration and management, and strengthen wetland protection and restoration. Support the pastoral and semi-pastoral provinces in implementing the grassland compensation policy, accelerate the transformation of the development mode of grassland animal husbandry, and promote the steady restoration of the grassland ecological environment. Promote the protection and restoration of marine ecosystems as a whole, and improve the carbon sequestration capacity of mangroves, seagrass beds, and salt marshes. Support the comprehensive management of soil erosion.

(6) Support the improvement of the green and low-carbon market system. Give full play to the role of carbon emission rights, energy use rights, pollution discharge rights and other trading markets, and guide the optimization of industrial layout. Improve the carbon emission statistical accounting and supervision system, improve the relevant standard system, and strengthen the construction of the carbon emission monitoring and measurement system. Support the unified supervision and management of carbon emissions trading across the country, improve the management of quota allocation in the national carbon emissions trading market, gradually expand the scope of trading industries, enrich trading varieties and trading methods, and introduce paid allocations in due course. Fully implement the pollutant discharge permit system, improve the system of paid use and trading of pollutant discharge rights, and actively cultivate a trading market. Improve carbon emission reporting and information disclosure systems for enterprises and financial institutions.

3. Fiscal policy measures

(1) Strengthening the guiding role of financial support. Strengthen the overall planning of financial resources, optimize the structure of financial expenditures, and increase support for carbon peaking and carbon neutralization. Fiscal funds are arranged closely around the work deployment of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on carbon peaking and carbon neutralization. The allocation of funds highlights key points, strengthens the protection of key industries, and improves the accuracy of funding policies. When distributing the existing transfer payment funds from the central government to local governments, the central government will give incentives and support to regions that have achieved outstanding results in promoting relevant work and played an exemplary and leading role.

(2) Improve the market-oriented diversified investment mechanism. Research and establish a national low-carbon transformation fund to support the green transformation of traditional industries and resource-rich areas. Give full play to the guiding role of existing government investment funds, including the National Green Development Fund. Encourage social capital to set up green and low-carbon industry investment funds in a market-oriented manner. Include eligible green and low-carbon development projects into the scope of government bond support. Adopt a variety of methods to support government-private partnership (PPP) projects in the field of ecological environment, and standardize local governments' performance of PPP projects.

(3) Give full play to the incentive and restraint role of tax policy. Implement tax policies such as environmental protection tax, resource tax, consumption tax, vehicle and vessel tax, vehicle purchase tax, value-added tax, and corporate income tax; implement preferential tax policies such as energy conservation and water conservation, and comprehensive utilization of resources, and study and support tax policies related to carbon emission reduction. Give full play to the role of taxation in promoting the green and low-carbon development of market entities. Optimize the tariff structure in accordance with the requirements of accelerating green and low-carbon development and continuously improving environmental quality.

(4) Improve government green procurement policies. Establish and improve the government procurement demand standard system for green and low-carbon products, and formulate government procurement demand standards for green buildings and green building materials by classification. Vigorously promote the application of prefabricated buildings and green building materials, and promote the improvement of building quality. Increase government procurement of new energy and clean energy official vehicles and ships, and purchase new energy vehicles in principle for official vehicles such as confidential communications, except for special geographical environment and other factors. Ships are given priority to purchase new energy and clean energy ships. Strengthen the main responsibility of purchasers, clarify green and low-carbon requirements in government procurement documents, and increase procurement of green and low-carbon products.

(5) Strengthen international cooperation in addressing climate change. Based on my country's position as a developing country, stabilize the existing multilateral and bilateral climate financing channels, and continue to strive for technical, financial and project assistance from international financial organizations and foreign governments. Actively participate in the United Nations climate funding negotiations, promote the full and effective implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement, build a green and low-carbon brand of the “Belt and Road”, and jointly promote global climate and environmental governance. Follow closely and actively participate in the development of international sustainable disclosure standards.

4. Safeguard measures

(1) Strengthen the implementation of responsibilities. Financial departments at all levels should effectively improve their political positions, attach great importance to the work related to carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and promote the realization of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals as scheduled in accordance with the relevant requirements for the division of central and local fiscal powers and expenditure responsibilities. Provincial financial departments should improve the working mechanism, study and formulate local financial support to achieve carbon neutralization policies and measures, consolidate responsibilities at various levels, clarify the division of responsibilities, and strengthen supervision and guidance for municipal and county financial departments. The municipal and county financial departments are responsible for the financial support of carbon peaking and carbon neutralization in their respective administrative regions, and do a good job in the implementation of central and provincial policies.

(2) Strengthen coordination and cooperation. Establish and improve the work coordination promotion mechanism of the linkage between the top and bottom of the financial department and the horizontal interaction between the financial department and other departments. Financial departments at all levels should speed up the sorting out of existing policies, clarify the funding channels for supporting carbon peaking and carbon neutralization, include the work tasks related to carbon peaking and carbon neutralization that meet the regulations into the scope of support, and strengthen cooperation with development reform, science and technology, industry and Informatization, natural resources, ecological environment, housing and urban and rural construction, transportation, water conservancy, agriculture and rural areas, energy, forestry and grassland, meteorology and other departments coordinate and cooperate to fully mobilize the enthusiasm of all aspects of work and form a joint force.

(3) Strict budget management. Continuously improve the efficiency of financial resource allocation and the use of financial support for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. Promote budget fund performance management in supporting the full coverage of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, strengthen budget fund performance evaluation and daily supervision, and harden budget constraints. Improve the incentive and restraint mechanism linked to the performance results of the relevant capital budget arrangements to support the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality work. Adhere to the connection of capital investment with policy planning and work tasks, and strengthen the supervision and evaluation of the completion of target tasks. The local regulatory bureaus of the Ministry of Finance shall evaluate and evaluate the relevant funds supporting the carbon neutralization work, identify problems in a timely manner, propose improvement measures, and supervise the local implementation of rectification measures.

(4) Increase the intensity of learning and publicity. Financial cadres at all levels should consciously strengthen the study and research on relevant policies and basic knowledge of carbon neutralization, take carbon peak carbon neutralization as an important part of the education and training system for financial cadres, and strengthen financial cadres at all levels to do a good job in carbon neutralization. Peak carbon neutrality works. Increase financial support to do a good job in the promotion of carbon peak and carbon neutrality and popularize science, encourage qualified regions to take various methods to strengthen ecological civilization publicity and education, build a carbon peak and carbon neutral theme science popularization base, and promote the concept of ecological civilization to deepen people, and promote the formation of a good atmosphere for green and low-carbon development.