[Chinese Mainland] The Opinions on Developing New Quality Productive Forces Issued: The Green, Low-Carbon, and Circular Economy System Sets Top-Level Coordinates for Wastewater Treatment and Reclaimed Water Reuse

The "Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Developing New Quality Productive Forces" was officially released on 2026年10月9日, deploying 19 key tasks across five aspects: scientific and technological innovation, industrial innovation, development model innovation, institutional and mechanism innovation, and talent work mechanism innovation. Among them, "striving to advance development model innovation" explicitly proposes building a green, low-carbon, and circular development economic system, building a batch of zero-carbon factories and parks, and improving the waste recycling system, establishing new top-level coordinates for the wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse industry during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.

I. Three Years Later: From Concept Proposal to Top-Level Design

According to the interpretation by the relevant responsible comrades of the National Development and Reform Commission, from 2023年7月 when General Secretary Xi Jinping first proposed new quality productive forces to the issuance of the "Opinions" by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, three years have passed. The introduction of this document is mainly based on three considerations: first, to thoroughly implement General Secretary Xi Jinping's important expositions on developing new quality productive forces; second, to guide high-quality economic and social development during the "15th Five-Year Plan"; third, to address emerging issues that have already appeared in work practice.

The "Opinions" clarify the overall requirements: adhere to innovation leadership, reform as the key, adapting measures to local conditions, and establishing the new before abolishing the old; adhere to high technology, high efficiency, and high quality; take scientific and technological innovation as the guide; take the substantial increase in total factor productivity as the core hallmark; and promote revolutionary technological breakthroughs, innovative allocation of production factors, and deep industrial transformation and upgrading.

For the environmental protection and water sector, the significance of this document lies in the fact that it elevates "green, low-carbon, and circular development" from industry self-discipline and individual policies to one of the core components of new quality productive forces. Wastewater treatment is no longer a backstop link of end-of-pipe treatment, but has become infrastructure of a circular society.

II. Three Directly Relevant Statements

In Article (11) of the "Opinions," "Building a Green, Low-Carbon, and Circular Development Economic System," three passages are highly relevant to wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse:

• Combining source reduction, process control, and efficient end-of-pipe treatment — This statement extends the approach to wastewater treatment from "end-of-pipe gatekeeping" to the entire process. Process design needs to extend forward to water quality and quantity control at the water use end, and backward to the outlets for reclaimed water and sludge.
• Coordinating the green transformation of key industries, accelerating green scientific and technological innovation and the promotion and application of advanced green technologies — The "promotion and application" of advanced green technologies has been written into a top-level document, meaning that the penetration rate of mature technologies such as high-efficiency and low-energy-consumption processes, energy-saving aeration equipment, fouling-resistant membrane materials, and intelligent control systems is expected to rise rapidly during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.
• Building a batch of zero-carbon factories and parks, improving the total resource management and comprehensive conservation system, and improving the waste recycling system — Energy self-sufficiency of wastewater treatment plants, resource-oriented disposal of sludge, and large-scale reuse of reclaimed water are precisely two key levers for "zero carbon" and "recycling" at the park level.

III. "AI+" Becomes a Clear Action

In the section on promoting the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation, the "Opinions" propose promoting the deep integration of the real economy and the digital economy, and comprehensively implementing the "AI+" action; in the section on improving the market regulatory system, it proposes exploring a regulatory model of "using data for decision-making and using data for management" to enhance the intelligent level of cross-departmental comprehensive regulation.

In water scenarios, this means that applications such as intelligent aeration control, dosing optimization, membrane fouling prediction, and influent load prediction will shift from "demonstration highlights" to "basic configuration." The focus of competition in the industry is shifting from the efficiency of individual equipment to data-driven global optimization capability.

IV. Policy Toolbox: Carbon Pricing and Green Finance Scaling Up in Tandem

Article (12), "Optimizing the Green Development Policy Toolbox," provides a complete set of economic incentive arrangements:

• Dual control system — Comprehensively implement the dual control system for total carbon emissions and intensity, and improve the carbon emission statistical accounting system, standard measurement system, product carbon labeling certification system, and product carbon footprint management system.
• Carbon market expansion — Improve the carbon pricing mechanism with the national carbon market as the main body, expand the coverage of the national carbon emission rights trading market, optimize the carbon emission allowance allocation plan, accelerate the construction of the greenhouse gas voluntary emission reduction trading market, and improve the national unified green certificate market.
• Green finance — Promote financial institutions to provide diversified green financial products, optimize government green procurement policies, and improve the green tax system.

For the wastewater treatment industry, the value of carbon accounting capability is being reassessed. A wastewater treatment plant that can achieve energy self-sufficiency through anaerobic digestion for biogas production, photovoltaic power generation, and sewage-source heat pumps while generating carbon emission reductions will not only spend less in the future, but may also have an additional tradable asset.

V. Industry Observation: Three Certain Directions

Based on the document's orientation and recent industry trends, the certainty of the wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse sector in the opening year of the "15th Five-Year Plan" is strengthening:

• Reclaimed Water Remains the Main Track — According to earlier disclosures by the Ministry of Water Resources, the total volume of reclaimed water utilization nationwide has exceeded 256亿 cubic meters. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, water consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP and water consumption per 10,000 yuan of industrial value added will each decrease by 10% on the basis of the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan"; at the local level, Shandong has made it clear that by 2030年, the reclaimed water utilization rate of cities across the province will reach 60%, and the utilization volume of unconventional water will reach 25亿 cubic meters or more.
• Resource Recovery Becomes an Evaluation Dimension — From sludge anaerobic digestion combined heat and power to biogas upgrading and waste heat recovery, wastewater treatment plants are being redefined as resource recovery factories. The Zhengzhou project that recently won the Global Innovation Award from the International Water Association follows exactly the "water-energy coupling" route.
• Requirements for Refined Management Are Rising — The amendment sheet to the Discharge Standard of Pollutants for Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants (GB 18918—2002) has been implemented since 2026年3月1日, adding instantaneous values for 4 items including Chemical Oxygen Demand, ammonia nitrogen, Total Nitrogen, and Total Phosphorus. The inclusion of instantaneous values in the law, combined with the "Artificial Intelligence Plus" initiative, means that stable operation and intelligent regulation will become part of the compliance baseline.

Industry analysis suggests that the release of the Opinions will not immediately bring specific funding or targets, but it places the technological roadmap, evaluation system, and policy tools for the next five years clearly on the table. For wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse enterprises, whether they can clearly articulate and solidly implement the three matters of pollution and carbon reduction, resource recovery, and intelligent operation will directly determine their position in the "15th Five-Year Plan" landscape.

TIANYI TECH Co., Ltd. (TIANYI LIMITED) has long been deeply engaged in the fields of wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse. Centering on the three major directions of low-carbon processes, resource recovery, and smart operations, it provides municipal wastewater treatment plants, industrial parks, and various water-using entities with full-chain services from solution design, equipment manufacturing, engineering construction, to operation management. With the goals of "stable compliance, energy saving and consumption reduction, and resource circulation," the company continues to help customers reduce operating costs and enhance system resilience in the green and low-carbon transition.

Source: Compiled from the Chinese government website's Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Developing New Quality Productive Forces, CCTV's Xinwen Lianbo report, People's Daily Online, China Industry News, and interpretations by relevant officials of the National Development and Reform Commission.