The goal of striving to peak carbon emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060 provides direction for China to achieve green and low-carbon development. At the 2021 Environmental Entrepreneurs Media Conference recently held by the Environmental Chamber of Commerce of the All China Federation of Industry and Commerce, several industry insiders stated that this year marks the beginning of the 14th Five Year Plan, and the comprehensive construction of a socialist modernized country has embarked on a new journey. With the goals of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, the development of the environmental protection industry has ushered in an opportunity period.

When it comes to the impact of carbon neutrality on enterprises, Li Junfeng, the first director of the National Center for Climate Change Strategy Research and International Cooperation and the director of the Renewable Energy Committee of the China Energy Research Association, pointed out that the proposal of carbon neutrality targets is of epoch-making significance. Currently, 40% of the world's economies are striving towards carbon neutrality. From this perspective, we must join and adapt to this big trend, so that the entire industrial process and route will be smooth, "said Li Junfeng.

Zhao Lijun, President of the Environmental Chamber of Commerce and Chairman of Botian Environment, stated that in the next 5 to 10 years, China's existing shortcomings in urban black and odorous water bodies, garbage disposal, and industrial and mining enterprise pollution will be accelerated, and traditional environmental governance work will be completed around 2030.

In this process, the market behavior of environmental pollution control mainly based on investment and construction will gradually withdraw, and the environmental industry will shift towards a stock era mainly focused on operation and maintenance services, quality improvement and efficiency enhancement, "said Zhao Lijun.

Looking ahead, industry insiders are generally optimistic that the environmental protection industry will usher in a period of development opportunities, and it is expected that the boundaries of the industry will further blur, and the integration of environmental protection and energy will become a trend.

Zhao Lijun believes that as we enter a new stage of development, implement new development concepts, and build a new development pattern, the environmental protection industry will also usher in a new important window period. At the same time, he expects that with the continuous expansion of the ecological environment field, the industrial boundaries will further blur, and the environmental protection industry will also usher in more opportunities. The traditional environmental industry will gradually shift from incremental to stock market, and the characteristics of modern service industry will be further highlighted. The industry will shift towards three core drivers: core technology, core products, and core service capabilities.

"Under the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, the environmental protection industry will usher in three transformations, from end to source control, from single factor control to coordinated control in the past, and from conventional pollutant control to special pollutant control in the environmental protection industry." Luo Jianhua, vice chairman and chief environmental policy expert of the Environmental Chamber of Commerce, said that based on the new trends in these three aspects, environmental protection enterprises can contribute to low-carbon undertakings in the circular economy, low-carbon operation of environmental protection facilities, and development of non fossil energy, which is both an opportunity and a challenge.

Li Qilin, Executive Chairman of the Environmental Chamber of Commerce and President of Fresh Environment, stated that the existing business of the traditional energy industry will be affected in the short term, and the proportion of new energy will continue to increase. Traditional environmental business will also have continuous operational services in addition to engineering services. In the long run, there is still a relatively large space in the existing market.