Green Jiangnan Public Environmental Concern Center (PECC) and the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE) formed the Photovoltaic Industry ESG Research Group. Drawing on the Green Supply Chain CITI Index and the Corporate Climate Action CATI Index, the Photovoltaic Industry ESG Research Group has, for the third consecutive year, conducted research on the green and low-carbon performance of photovoltaic power generation equipment manufacturers (Table 1) with relatively high market shares, mainly engaged in the production of polysilicon, silicon wafer, cells, modules, Inverter, glass, and mounting systems.

In July 2026, through its engagement in environmental and climate action, IPE witnessed 610 enterprises disclosing a total of 624 carbon emission data sheets, and 648 enterprises disclosing a total of 664 PRTR (Pollutant Release and Transfer Register) data sheets. In addition, 117 enterprises passed the GCA audit, verifying the effectiveness of their corrective actions of 202 supervision records from the Blue Map website.

Since the signing of the Paris Agreement, the international community’s joint efforts have resulted in global renewable energy expanding at an accelerated pace and catastrophic temperature-rise scenarios being mitigated. However, extreme weather events continue to occur frequently worldwide, temperature increases have repeatedly reached new highs, and the climate situation remains extremely severe. Of particular concern is that total carbon emissions have increased rather than decreased, while high-emission industries such as steel and aluminum have made slow progress. How to enable industries such as automobiles to release low-carbon procurement price signals and guide raw-material supply chains such as steel and aluminum to accelerate decarbonization has become key to breaking the emissions-reduction bottleneck.

China’s automobile exports reached another record high at 7.098 million vehicles in 2025 , with new energy vehicles becoming the core driver of exports. The dividends from going overseas are extending to “carbon assets”—auto brands such as Leapmotor have earned substantial revenue by transferring carbon credits while Chery has begun to see its overseas-market revenue surpass that of China’s domestic market. Earning a tangible “carbon dividend” is encouraging, but a more far-reaching question lies behind: as automobile exports advance at full speed, and in the face of stringent international green trade rules, can Chinese automakers use this opportunity to accelerate product carbon footprint disclosure, compel decarbonization across the entire industry chain, and strengthen their low-carbon appeal to consumers in China and abroad?

In June 2026, through its engagement in environmental and climate action, IPE witnessed 752 enterprises disclosing a total of 762 carbon emission data sheets, and 824 enterprises disclosing a total of 844 PRTR (Pollutant Release and Transfer Register) data sheets. In addition, 103 enterprises passed the GCA audit, verifying the effectiveness of their corrective actions of 268 supervision records from the Blue Map website.

2026 marks a landmark year for mandatory sustainability disclosure for listed companies in the A-share market. All seven automakers from the A-share market that meet the “conditions for entities subject to mandatory disclosure” published their reports on schedule, disclosing climate response, pollution control and ecosystem protection, resource utilization and circular economy. However, disclosure quality varies considerably: most companies lack disclosure of quantitative targets; some have significant deficiencies in environmental compliance disclosure; and no automaker fully complies with the disclosure requirements of the Guidelines.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) recently released its annual Global EV Outlook 2026. The report states that in 2025, large vehicles including SUVs accounted for almost 70% of the global electric vehicle market. These figures underscore the widely discussed issue of “autobesity”: the increasing size and weight of vehicles. The global auto market is increasingly shifting toward larger models, which not only raises the consumption of raw materials such as steel, aluminum, and plastics in passenger vehicle production, but also increases greenhouse gas emissions across upstream supply chains. The resulting “incremental carbon emissions” could even offset the emissions reduction of electric vehicles during the driving phase.