On December 14, 2023, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) published the Guidelines for Establishing the Green and Low-carbon Standards System for the Communications Industry (2023 Version) (hereinafter referred to as the Guidelines). The Guidelines are aimed at facilitating the green and low-carbon development of the communications industry via standardization. These are in line with a series of development policies previously issued by MIIT, including the 14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Information and Communication Industry, Action Plan for Green and Low-carbon Development of the Information and Communication Industry (2022-2025), as well as the 14th Five-Year Plan for Industrial Green Development.
The Guidelines mainly comprises six parts: general requirements, rationale of the standards system (see figure 1), detailed introduction of the system, organizational implementation, list of standards (both those currently in-force as well as those under development/revision), and priorities. Specifically:
- General requirements:The quantitative goal is to complete, by 2025, the development or revision of over 50 relevant standards.
- Rationale: the development of the standardssystem has taken into account other standards systems already established, such as those for energy conservation and comprehensive utilization of resources, green manufacturing, and carbon peak and carbon neutrality.
- Detailed introduction: for each sub-category, the standardssystem enumerates the possible standards of relevancy.
- List of standards:A total of 132 standards are listed, including national standards, sector standards, and association standards.
- Priorities:A total of 14 aspects are identified as priorities, these are highlighted in red in figure 1 above.
