In response to climate change, the Chinese government intends to adopt more powerful policies and measures to increase its nationally determined contribution and therefore to strive to achieve the peak of carbon dioxide emissions in 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060. To do a good job in "carbon peak" and "carbon neutrality" has been listed as one of the key tasks of the government in 2021, and the country's 14th "Five-Year Plan" will also include accelerating the promotion of green and low-carbon development.

As one of the first eight industries included in carbon trading, China's paper industry is experiencing an unprecedented "green revolution". After more than two decades of rapid development, the annual output of paper/board in China has surged from only 30 million tons in 2000 to nearly 113 million tons in 2020. But now, China's paper industry is facing new strategic choices in order to conform to the country's "dual carbon" goal and win new and longer-term development. According to the "Carbon Neutrality Summit Forum and China's Listed Company’s Carbon Emission Ranking List" sponsored by "The Finance" magazine and strategically supported by Sino-Carbon Investment, only Nine Dragons is on the list in the paper industry. Its carbon emissions in 2020 were 13.55 million tons, ranking 79th; its carbon emission intensity was 2.64 tons per RMB10,000.

Obviously, the traditional "production-oriented" thinking of simple expansion is not adaptable to the requirements of the new situation, and will inevitably be discarded overtime! How to establish new thinking, comprehensively explore operating models and turn challenges into opportunities has become a topic that many large companies in the industry are actively exploring. At the "2020 China International Paper Innovation and Development Forum" held in Shanghai this month, APP (China) showed its ideas and practices to the participants. These are: through technological innovation, industrial upgrading, etc., to further promote the transition from "production-oriented" to "quality and efficiency-oriented", and then realize a virtuous circle from resource acquisition, manufacturing, waste utilization and resource regeneration, and finally establish a complete and organic low-carbon recycling green production model has to meet the challenges of transformation and upgrading of the energy structure and industrial structure. At the same time, to actively create a green cycle of "running water at the source" and grasp the first-mover advantage of carbon neutrality, while effectively implementing energy conservation, emission reduction, clean production and promoting the goal of "reducing carbon and increasing efficiency" through the digital transformation of enterprises.

For more than 30 years, APP (China) has been implementing the development strategy of "integration of forest, pulp and paper" in business practice. By combining forestry and paper, the company has continuously adopted advanced technology to improve energy efficiency and optimize energy structure. At the same time, it has launched products such as tissue paper with the concept of "carbon neutrality", striving to achieve the long-term goal of reducing emissions by 30% by 2030. It is believed that more Chinese paper enterprises will respond to the new requirements of the times, combine their own situation, turn challenges into opportunities, develop and implement a new model of "green operation" for their enterprises, and make their due contribution to the overall improvement and long-term development of the Chinese paper industry!