[Chinese Mainland] "Guidelines for Carbon Footprint Accounting of Industrial Wastewater Treatment" Released: First Clear Carbon Emission Accounting for 10 Categories of Processes, Synergistic Implementation of Pollution Reduction and Carbon Reduction

Introduction

The "Guidelines for Carbon Footprint Accounting of Industrial Wastewater Treatment" has been officially released, systematically defining for the first time the carbon emission accounting boundaries and methods for the entire process of industrial wastewater treatment, covering 10 typical process categories including membrane separation, evaporative crystallization, aeration, and sludge treatment. The issuance of the guidelines moves "carbon accounting in water treatment" from concept to operability, providing a unified metric for the synergistic advancement of pollution reduction and carbon reduction in industrial wastewater treatment.

Background

Under the "dual carbon" goals, the energy consumption and carbon emissions of environmental protection facilities themselves are receiving increasing attention. Electricity consumption, chemical consumption, and sludge disposal in industrial wastewater treatment all entail significant carbon emissions, but for a long time there has been a lack of unified accounting standards, making it difficult for enterprises to quantify the carbon cost of pollution treatment and to demonstrate carbon reduction achievements in green credit, carbon markets, and ESG disclosure. The lack of standards and methods has become a weak point in the synergistic advancement of pollution reduction and carbon reduction.

Core

The core contribution of the guidelines lies in the "three unifications": unified accounting boundaries—clearly defining the full-chain scope from influent pumping, physicochemical/biochemical treatment, advanced treatment to sludge disposal; unified emission factors—providing default values and measurement requirements for key links such as electricity consumption, chemicals, and transportation; unified process list—for the first time listing carbon emission accounting methods for 10 process categories including membrane treatment, evaporative crystallization, Anaerobic, Aerobic aeration, and Ozonation/Advanced Oxidation / AOP. Among them, the high-energy-consumption evaporative crystallization and low-temperature evaporation units are specifically included, forcing process selection to lean toward low-carbon options.