The "Interim Measures for the Administration of Low-Carbon Product Certification," jointly formulated by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Certification and Accreditation Administration of China, and related technical documents will be released soon. At that time, China will implement a nationwide, voluntary low-carbon product certification system.
It is understood that mainland China has a multi-tiered certification system for energy-saving products, environmentally friendly products, and future low-carbon products. According to experts from the mainland's quality inspection system, for consumers, energy-saving products focus on saving energy costs, environmentally friendly products focus on reducing emissions of toxic and harmful substances, and low-carbon products focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
In response, Qian Guoqiang, a carbon reduction expert from mainland China who participated in the negotiations of the Kyoto Protocol as an attaché of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, believes that although there are various certifications for energy-saving, environmentally friendly, and low-carbon products in mainland China, they are not mutually exclusive. In the future, whoever can win the voluntary certification of enterprises will have a greater chance of obtaining support policies such as priority government procurement, financial subsidies, and tax reductions from the mainland's financial and tax departments. And whoever can win the mutual recognition of low-carbon labels by international authoritative institutions and advanced countries will be able to expand the scope of use of their products.
In addition, the China Quality Certification Center (CQC) is undertaking research on the "Special Project for Addressing Climate Change - Research on the Mainland's Low-Carbon Certification System," jointly implemented by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Certification and Accreditation Administration of China. Tian Xiaofei, Director of the Low-Carbon and Energy Efficiency Department of CQC, revealed that the mainland will establish a unified low-carbon product certification system.
It is understood that mainland China will implement a unified low-carbon product catalog in the future, and plan unified national standards, certification technical specifications and certification rules, as well as unified certification certificates and certification marks. The national low-carbon product certification catalog will be formulated, adjusted and published by relevant national departments, which includes the "Low-Carbon Product Certification Technical Specifications" and the "Low-Carbon Product Carbon Emission Reduction Evaluation Indicators".
According to relevant authorities, the preliminary design stipulates that the low-carbon product certification certificate will be valid for three years, and that no organization or individual may forge, alter, misuse, sell, or transfer the low-carbon product certification certificate and certification mark.
In addition, CQC stated that since low-carbon products are different from energy-saving and environmentally friendly products, they refer to products whose carbon emission values meet the relevant low-carbon evaluation index requirements in the national standards or technical specifications for that type of product compared to similar or functional products.
Sources: MoneyDJ Financial Knowledge Base (2012-10-3
