Li Jinbo, Deputy To The National People'S Congress

Ye Bihua, reporting group of the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress of China Southern finance and economics all media group reports from Shunde, Guangdong

Climate change is a major challenge facing mankind in the 21st century. The Paris Agreement in 2015 proposed that the global average temperature rise should be controlled within 2 ℃ compared with the pre industrial period, and efforts should be made to limit it within 1.5 ℃. According to the IEA, another 35% reduction in carbon emissions is needed to achieve the "2 ℃ target".

Obviously, "carbon neutral" is the only way forward. According to the report of the United Nations Framework Convention on climate change (UNFCCC) in September 2019, 60 countries around the world have committed to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2050 or even earlier.

China is the largest carbon emitter in the world. The central economic work conference will take "carbon peak, carbon neutralization" as one of the eight major tasks in 2021. It calls for the formulation of an action plan to reach the peak carbon emission by 2030, support the localities with conditions to take the lead in reaching the peak, and accelerate the adjustment and optimization of industrial structure and energy structure.

For the home appliance industry, we have the ability and responsibility to participate in the implementation of this plan. Household appliances are the second largest source of residential energy consumption, accounting for more than 20% of total residential energy consumption (after heating), which has been increasing in the past few decades. Moreover, up to 30% of household carbon emissions come from household appliances.

As an engineer in the field of home appliances, Li Jinbo, deputy to the National People's Congress and director of Midea's Innovation Center for household air conditioning, made relevant suggestions on the energy development, recycling system and industrial Internet data of the home appliance industry this year.

He believes that the implementation of the "carbon label" is embodied in improving production efficiency, reducing energy consumption and producing more energy-saving products. For enterprises and industries, it can not only better implement the national strategy of "carbon peak and carbon neutralization", but also boost the scientific and technological level of enterprises and realize high-quality development in an all-round way.

Establishment of carbon label for household electrical appliances in China

According to statistics, the annual production of major household appliances in the world is about 800 million units, of which 420 million sets are made in China, accounting for 56% of the total. In particular, refrigerators and air conditioners account for nearly 80% of the total, which is a veritable household appliance manufacturing and consumption power. Therefore, the design and production of "green home appliances" and the realization of "green manufacturing" are the inevitable trend of the home appliance industry.

At present, China has established a sound energy efficiency labeling regulations and implementation system, which has successfully slowed down the growth momentum of household and office products in the consumption of electric energy and natural gas, and reduced the emission of carbon dioxide. Taking air conditioning as an example, the new energy efficiency standard officially implemented on July 1 last year unifies the standard system of fixed frequency air conditioning and frequency conversion air conditioning, and further improves the index of each energy efficiency level.

Cheng Jianhong, a researcher at the China Institute of standardization, once predicted that the implementation of the new air-conditioning energy efficiency standard will make the current air-conditioning market elimination rate reach 45%, energy efficiency will be increased by 14% in 2020 and 30% in 2022. This process will eliminate 99% of the constant speed air conditioning models and 70% of the variable frequency air conditioning models on the market.

However, the energy efficiency label is only related to the indirect greenhouse gas emissions during the use of household appliances, and cannot cover the direct greenhouse gas emissions in the production and recovery process. Therefore, Li Jinbo suggested that it is necessary to establish more comprehensive and scientific greenhouse gas emission assessment standards and labels for household appliances, promote the development of environmental protection and efficient household appliances technology and product marketing, and help implement the national strategy of "carbon peak, carbon neutral".

"China's home appliances have been in the forefront of the world in terms of energy efficiency, intelligent manufacturing and other fields, from the original following imitation to the present independent innovation in the world." Li Jinbo believes that the home appliance industry has the conditions to take the lead in realizing low-carbon development. Next, we can promote the low-carbon development of the home appliance industry by improving the "carbon labeling" laws and regulations, establishing the carbon emission evaluation standards of China's household appliances, and establishing the "carbon labeling" of Chinese household appliances.

First of all, from the legal level, the main guiding documents for the operation of China's carbon labeling system are the Interim Measures for the use and management of China's environmental labeling low carbon products issued by the Ministry of ecological environment and the Interim Measures for the administration of low carbon product certification issued by the national development and Reform Commission Bit state, it is necessary to improve. Li Jinbo suggested to refer to the existing international laws and regulations, improve the "climate change law" and "environmental protection law", and establish a "carbon labeling" system for Chinese products.

Secondly, domestic carbon emissions cover the whole chain of production, transportation, sales, use, recycling and other links, and the external will also have an impact on the supply chain and international trade, and may even become trade barriers. The establishment of transparent and scientific carbon emission evaluation standards for household appliances is the basis for implementing the "carbon labeling" system, realizing the dual effects of low-carbon development and avoiding carbon barriers. Li Jinbo believes that on the basis of the existing international standards such as iso14067, the direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions of products can be comprehensively considered, and a calculation system and standard for household appliances suitable for China's national conditions can be established as soon as possible.

He further pointed out that the existing low-carbon product labels of China's environmental labels only have carbon emission reduction labels to avoid the disclosure of their real carbon emission values, so it is impossible to achieve quantitative management. Consumers generally lack awareness of such labels and have not attracted the attention of consumers such as energy efficiency labels. Therefore, it is suggested to draw lessons from the existing energy efficiency labeling, refer to or standardize the international environmental labeling standard system, set the emission standard classification of different products, mark the percentage of carbon emission and standard value, gradually screen out the product types that need to use carbon label compulsorily, and guide household electric products to realize low-carbon.

Li Jinbo believes that taking the lead in establishing the "carbon label" system in the home appliance industry is both a traction and a backward force for enterprises. "On the one hand, it can lead everyone to increase investment in science and technology, make better products, let consumers have a better use experience, and let the country have a better foothold in carbon emissions." On the other hand, "if you don't invest, don't make progress in science and technology, and don't move forward, consumers may not buy your products in the end. Backward production capacity and technology can be eliminated through standards, forcing everyone to progress toward new technologies."

Li Jinbo takes Midea Group as an example. In recent years, Midea has made great efforts to save energy and reduce consumption in the design, production and use of products through new technologies such as "t + 3" new mode and 5g + industrial Internet. For example, after the industrial Internet transformation, Nansha factory in Guangzhou has improved labor productivity by 28%, reduced unit cost by 14%, and shortened order delivery time by 56%.

Li Jinbo believes that the implementation of "carbon labeling" by enterprises is specifically manifested in improving production efficiency, reducing energy consumption and producing more energy-saving products, which will promote the high-quality development of the industry and enable enterprises to actively adapt to and embrace the national strategy.

Improve the recycling system of large household waste products

Following the first proposal, Li Jinbo is also concerned about the recycling of large household waste. He listed a group of data to reporters: in 2018, the total number of major household appliances in China was about 2.01 billion, including 440 million refrigerators, 430 million washing machines, 520 million air conditioners, 370 million water heaters and 250 million range hood.

According to the series of standards of safe service life of household appliances, it is estimated that 180 million household appliances will reach the safe service life in 2020 and need to be replaced timely. Among them, there are more than 37 million washing machines, 52 million air conditioners, 58 million refrigerators, 18 million electric water heaters and 14 million range hoods. Obviously, China's power market has entered the stage of stock competition, and waste products need to be recycled at the same time when installing new products.

"However, from the perspective of home appliance recycling, about 80% of China's waste home appliance recycling channels come from social recycling. The recycling level is low, the management is not standardized, and the necessary infrastructure is lacking. The" last mile "has always been difficult to get through, and consumers can't easily dispose of waste household appliances, which restricts the consumption cycle of the domestic home appliance market." Li Jinbo told reporters that the same problems with large household appliances also include furniture (mattress, sofa, bookcase, etc.), ceramic sanitary ware and other large household products.

According to GB / T According to 25175-2010 technical requirements for collection and utilization of bulky waste, the definition of bulky waste refers to the waste products (such as waste furniture) and various household appliances and electronic products that need to be disassembled and reused or treated due to its strong integrity, such as furniture, household appliances and electronic products, and other large pieces There are three kinds of garbage.

With the improvement of people's living standards, the demand for integrated updating of household appliances, furniture and other household products is constantly increasing. However, due to the characteristics of large pieces of waste products, such as large volume and heavy weight, and the lack of convenient recycling points, these large household waste products are either discarded at will or disassembled by illegal dismantling points, resulting in waste of resources and environmental pollution.

Li Jinbo cited the home appliance industry as an example. Since 2016, household appliance manufacturers have tried to recycle waste household appliances by means of "reverse logistics". However, due to the difficulty in qualification application and high cost of recovery, it is impossible to maintain the long-term maintenance by relying solely on market-oriented operation. In contrast, developed countries, including Germany, France, South Korea, Japan and other developed countries, currently rely on the government to carry out the classification and management of large household waste products.

Therefore, Li Jinbo believes that it is urgent for China to build infrastructure covering the recycling of large household waste products, such as household appliances and furniture, and improve the recycling system of large household waste products.

We can start from five aspects: taking local government as the main body, building the storage infrastructure of large household waste products; taking the region as the unit, strengthening the standardized management of local waste product recyclers; formulating normative documents to make it clear that it is strictly forbidden to discard large household waste products at will; strengthening the publicity and reminding activities on the safe use life of household appliances; and timely Revise and improve the regulations on the management of waste electrical and electronic products recycling.

Li Jinbo especially stressed that it is necessary to build a recycling and disposal system for large household waste products with public welfare and marketization and Chinese characteristics, with "local government as the main body of management, consumers standardizing waste, and relevant parties bearing their respective responsibilities". He further explained that "Chinese characteristics" are reflected in the new national system, and the power of industry associations can be exerted through the overall arrangement of the government. For example, the China Household Electrical Appliance Association actively promotes the establishment and standardization of the home appliance recycling market.

"Public welfare is reflected in the fact that if some chemicals in household appliances are not handled properly, they will cause harm to the natural ecological environment and even human health." In Li Jinbo's view, it is imperative to build a "recycling and treatment system for large household waste products", which not only needs the government's guidance and promotion, but also actively guides enterprises to participate actively, so as to reduce the high cost of resource allocation by the government.