A worker manufactures photovoltaic panels at a workshop in Suqian, East China's Jiangsu Province on December 17, 2024. In the first three quarters of 2024, China's exports of the "new three" - electric vehicles, lithium batteries and photovoltaic products - hit 757.83 billion yuan. Photo: VCG

Green development, including green building renovation and innovation in the photovoltaic (PV) industry, is set to be the focal point for some panel discussions during the two sessions, the annual meetings of China's top legislature and top political advisory body, the Global Times learned on Tuesday from a deputy to the National People's Congress (NPC) and a member of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Promoting China's independent PV innovation and the development of original technology is the top priority in the country's green development, Zhong Baoshen, an NPC deputy and chairman of Longi Green Energy Technology Co, told the Global Times on Tuesday in a statement. 

Zhong noted that China's new-energy industry, after years of sustained innovation and development, has achieved a transformative leap from being a follower to a global leader. However, it now faces suppression and containment from countries and regions including the US and Europe that employ asymmetric competition tactics such as leveraging zombie patents and dormant patents, thus weaponizing intellectual property rights to hinder the development of Chinese new-energy enterprises with original technological capabilities, ultimately aiming to erode the global competitive edge of China's new-energy sector.

Moreover, the PV industry is still facing challenges such as supply-demand mismatch and involution-style competition, so strengthening the capability of independent innovation and developing original technology is an inevitable choice to break through the current bottleneck, Zhong said.

He suggested guiding the market to apply advanced technology products, providing solid support for the development of advanced technology, and increasing investment in research and development (R&D) of original technology. 

Strong support for industrial core enterprises to form a collaborative innovation ecology with universities, R&D institutions and the industrial chain is needed to create innovative industrial clusters and enhance the overall competitiveness of the industry, he said. 

In addition, Zhong suggested supporting leading enterprises to take the lead in formulating industry standards, such as carbon footprint accounting for PV modules, in order to seize the right to technological discourse and consolidate industrial dominance.

In addition to industrial innovation to further boost China's green development, Dai Hegen, a CPPCC National Committee member, told the Global Times on Tuesday that against the backdrop of global climate change and resource shortages, green and low-carbon building renovation has become a global consensus. 

With the acceleration of China's urbanization and the proposal of the "dual carbon" goals, green building renovation is an inevitable choice to promote urban renewal and high-quality economic development, said Dai, who is also the chairman of Chinese construction giant CRCC.

To construct a house that is green, low-carbon, smart and safe has gradually become the standard for a good house in China, Dai said. "Therefore, I brought a number of suggestions including further completing the carbon tracking mechanism for buildings and urban renewal, making it more data-based and in compliance with a set of unified standards." 

Regulators also need to accelerate the process of updating standards to cope with the fast growth of new materials, many of which face market entry programs due to these constraints in outdated standards and protocols, according to Dai. 

The government could also roll out more incentives as low-carbon renewal projects that require large inputs of talent, resources and capital but have relatively low short-term returns on investment, noted Dai.

On Monday, Liu Jieyi, spokesperson for the third session of the 14th CPPCC National Committee, said that the CPPCC National Committee has set up a new sector on the environment and natural resources, bringing together members, experts and entrepreneurs from various fields such as ecology, environmental protection and energy.

Liu noted that while focusing on green, low-carbon and high-quality development as the fundamental policy, the top political advisory body vigorously promoted green production and life modes, deepening the consensus on the transformation of the enterprises and the industry, and boosting the green upgrading of industry.