By LI Linxu

China's carbon peaking and carbon neutrality standards are to be established and improved, according to a new outline jointly issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on October 10.

The document, titled National Standardization Development Outline, details the country's standardization goals to promote standards development.

By 2025, the level of standardization will see a big boost, according to the goals set by the outline, adding that more than 50 percent of generic key technologies and applied technologies planned programs should produce standards research results, and the average development period of national standards should be shortened within 18 months.

By then, the standards system promoting high quality development will be basically established, with all economic sectors, such as agriculture, industry and services, covered by industry standards.

Meanwhile, the opening-up and international cooperation on standardization work will be deepened extensively, notes the outline, proposing that the consistency degree between national standards and international standards will be elevated significantly, and the conversion rate of international standards will exceed 85 percent.

At present in China, the effective supply of standards is inadequate, the implementation and application of standards is not sufficient, and the technology and internationalization level of standards is not high, said Tian Shihong, vice minister of the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) and administrator of the Standardization Administration of China (SAC).

Therefore, to implement the outline is an urgent need for the historical transformation of the country's standardization work, a major decision to promote high quality economic and social development, and a necessity to boost high level self-reliance and self-strengthening, said Tian.

Aside from setting the goals for the next five years, the outline has also set the goals for the next 15 years. By 2035, as the standardization management system with Chinese characteristics becomes more completive, a market -driven, government-guided, and enterprise-oriented standardization pattern will fully take shape, featuring mass participation, opening-up and integration.

PHOTO：VCG

To achieve these goals, the outline puts forward a series of tasks and measures for the standardization work, such as promoting mutual development of standardization and sci-tech innovation, boosting the level of industrial standardization, improving the standardization guarantee for green development, and elevating the level of opening-up and international cooperation.

The standards research in key technology sectors, such as artificial intelligence, quantum information, and pharmaceutical technologies, will be enhanced, according to the outline.

In technology sectors with promising application prospects, such as a new generation of information technologies, big data, blockchain, new energy and new materials, technology R&D, standards development and industrialization promotion will be carried out simultaneously.

In addition, the standardization upgrade project for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality will be implemented.

The updating and upgrading of energy conservation standards is to be accelerated, mandatory national standards of energy efficiency will be revised, the standards of energy calculation, testing and certification will be improved, and the standards of ecological carbon sink, and carbon capture, utilization and storage will be established, says the outline.