Latest moves in carbon neutrality take center stage

China's carbon neutrality process has become more sophisticated than simply demanding companies to cut emissions – it has seen a whole-process supply chain taking shape.

The latest moves were shown at the 2025 Shanghai International Carbon Neutrality Expo in Technologies, Products and Achievements, which opened on Thursday at the Shanghai New International Expo Center. More than 300 companies from 15 countries and regions are taking part.

"The process of China's carbon neutrality is shifting from policy-driven to collaborative innovation among policies, markets and technologies," said Patricia Xia, EY China Central's managing partner.

"It has evolved toward full-scale implementation from blueprints on the initial stage. Future trends will feature continuous iteration of the policy framework, along with deep restructuring of the energy structure, and technological innovation-driven industrial transformation," Xia said.

At the expo, leading state-owned energy firms such as State Grid, China Energy Engineering Group and China Huaneng Group are presenting key technologies in energy transformation.

Enterprises including China COSCO Shipping, SAIC Group, and Shanghai Electric Science and Technology have put technological achievements in the low-carbon transportation sector on display.

Meanwhile, Oriental International, Shanghai Chengtou Group and BASF are dedicated to presenting resource-efficient utilization models in the circular economy.

Financial institutions and enterprises including Bank of Communications and EY offer low-carbon services, including green finance and consulting services.

Corporate giants such as L'Oreal and Lenovo Group are focused on green consumption transformation and sustainable development.

"You can see a lot of companies of different backgrounds have attended this expo to demonstrate what they can contribute to carbon neutrality," said Zheng Xiaoguang, marketing director of Lianhe Equator Environment Impact Assessment Co Ltd, which assists companies to evaluate their carbon neutrality performance.

"Carbon neutrality has become an integral part of business, and involves all – from producers to end users," Zheng said.

At the expo, visitors were invited to join an interactive game to identify carbon neutrality in their daily lives from dressing, eating, living, commuting and consuming.