Steel and aluminum material production are hotspots for the automobile industry. Automakers must urgently implement low-carbon procurement, thereby incentivizing raw-material suppliers to accelerate decarbonization. With support from the Energy Foundation, IPE launched the second phase of the research in September 2025, aiming to further examine how green supply chain management and information disclosure can promote coordinated carbon reduction across the automobile industry, guiding automakers to drive the low-carbon transition of the steel and aluminum industries.

In August 2026, through its engagement in environmental and climate action, IPE saw 317 enterprises disclosing a total of 319 carbon emission data sheets, and 317 enterprises disclosing a total of 319 PRTR (Pollutant Release and Transfer Register) data sheets. In addition, 114 enterprises passed the GCA audit, verifying the effectiveness of their corrective actions related to 243 supervision records listed on the Blue Map website.

As an important purchaser of high-carbon materials such as steel, aluminum, and cement, the real estate industry faces the important question of how to send market signals and drive supply chain decarbonization, thereby achieving life cycle emissions reduction in the building sector. To analyse the effectiveness of supply chain carbon management in the real estate industry and efforts to reduce embodied carbon, the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs (IPE), with support from the Energy Foundation, launched the first phase of the “Coordinated Carbon Reduction in Green Supply Chains for Real estate, Steel, and Aluminum” research in September 2025.

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?