On April 24, 2024, the 8th Annual Conference of the China Energy Modeling Forum was held in Beijing. During the annual conference, the “Sub-Forum on Carbon and Energy System Management and Mechanism in Zero-carbon Industrial Parks and the First Carbon Neutrality and Energy System Transformation (CNEST) Forum” was successfully held.

The first CNEST forum was co-hosted by the Institute for Carbon Neutrality of Tsinghua University (ICON, Tsinghua), the China Industrial Park Green Development Research Center of the School of Environment, Tsinghua University, and the World Carbon Neutrality Association (in preparation). The forum invited a number of experts from academia and industry to deeply discuss the development trends and challenges of carbon and energy management in industrial parks, and contributed a feast of ideas to industrial carbon neutrality.

The opening ceremony of the forum was presided over by Lu Xi, assistant to the dean of the ICON, and Wang Zhe, associate dean of the ICON, and Gao Ji, director of energy and nature projects at EDF, delivered speeches at the opening ceremony. In his speech, Wang Zhe introduced the overall situation of the Carbon Neutrality and Energy System Transformation (CNEST) multilateral cooperation program initiated by Tsinghua University. In her speech, Gao Ji emphasized the significance of industrial parks for promoting green industrial demonstration transformation, intelligent manufacturing, efficient utilization of resource recycling, carbon emission reduction, and cost reduction, and suggested creating zero-carbon industrial park pilots for different types and regions with advanced technologies and promotional value.

The keynote report session of the forum was hosted by Tian Jinping, a researcher at the Institute of Environmental Ecology, School of Environment, Tsinghua University. He pointed out that there are currently 2,543 national and provincial-level parks across the country, contributing approximately 50%-60% of the total industrial output value and 31% of the country’s carbon emissions. About 70%-80% of industrial enterprises are located in the parks. Therefore, carbon reduction in industrial parks is of key significance for industrial carbon reduction and even the country’s “dual-carbon” work.

Subsequently, the forum invited five industry experts to give wonderful keynote reports. Liu Gang, a professor at the School of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, gave a keynote report titled “Progress and Outlook of the Resource-Energy-Emission Coupling Model in the Context of Carbon Neutrality”. Wang Yongli, a professor at the Energy Internet Research Center, North China Electric Power University, gave a keynote report titled “Low-carbon Planning Technology and Typical applications of Integrated Energy System in Industrial Parks”. Zhao Lihua, deputy general manager of Beijing CESI Certification Co., Ltd., China Electronics Standardization Research Institute, gave a keynote report on the progress of the construction of national green industrial parks. Xing Ge, general manager of zero-carbon business expansion at Envision Group, gave a keynote report titled “Zero-carbon Industrial Park Facilitates Green, Low-carbon, and High-quality Development”. Wang Wenhao, an energy digitalization expert and senior project manager at Tencent Carbon Neutrality Laboratory, gave a keynote report titled “Tencent Carbon Neutrality Planning and Practice”.

The roundtable discussion session of the forum was chaired by Lu Xi, and invited guests such as Guo Qinglai, a professor at the Department of Electrical Engineering and Applied Electronics Technology, Tsinghua University, Wang Yongli, a professor at the Energy Internet Research Center of North China Electric Power University, Yao Shangheng, a researcher at the Energy Development Research Institute of China Southern Power Grid, Wang Wenhao, a senior project manager at the Tencent Carbon Neutrality Laboratory, and Lei Yu, the dean of Dongfang Electrical Engineering Design Institute, to participate in the discussion. The guests shared high-quality insights on the low-carbon development trend and path, main problems and challenges, and future prospects of industrial parks.