Recently, at the 2025 (16th) Iron and Steel Industry Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction Conference hosted by the Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, attendees expressed the need to leverage the role of government, industry, academia, research and application under policy guidance and market drive, deepen the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, enhance carbon trading capacity and level, and help the steel industry save energy and reduce emissions. At present, the China Iron and Steel Industry Association is vigorously promoting three major renovation projects: ultra-low emissions, extreme energy efficiency, and digital transformation. Among them, in terms of ultra-low emissions, as of July this year, 197 steel enterprises have completed the full or partial process ultra-low emission transformation public announcement. The country's 600 million tons of crude steel production capacity has completed the full process ultra-low emission transformation, and 350 million tons of crude steel production capacity has completed key engineering transformation. The above production capacity accounts for more than 80% of the country's total production capacity. The three major transformation projects in the steel industry, namely ultra-low emissions, extreme energy efficiency, and digital transformation, are carried out independently of each other and have collaborative concepts and technologies. ”Jiang Wei, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Vice President and Secretary General of the China Iron and Steel Industry Association, said that we should attach importance to scientific and technological progress, promote source, system and scientific governance, and achieve a smooth conclusion of ultra-low emissions with higher quality. At the same time, through extreme energy efficiency engineering, continuously iterate and update the technical and capability lists, so that the lists can quickly move from paper to the workshop; Collaborative research and development, tackling common problems and technologies, promoting deep integration of industry, academia, research and application, and concentrating efforts to break through technological bottlenecks; Further expand the coverage of benchmark demonstrations and deepen the closed-loop management of the entire process; Share the ultimate energy efficiency engineering concept, path, and achievements in the steel industry. In addition, we need to deepen the low-carbon transformation work, strengthen the digital carbon management capabilities of steel enterprises, enhance carbon trading capabilities and levels, and accelerate the development of low-carbon technologies through the guiding role of the carbon market. The experience of ultra-low emission transformation in the steel industry is extremely valuable. It is easy to transform in the short term, but more difficult to maintain in the long term. ”Liu Bingjiang, former chief engineer of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and member of the Population, Resources and Environment Committee of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, stated that a more flexible and sustainable management system should be planned, using hard standards and soft incentives to "walk on two legs", ensuring that all enterprises compete fairly under unified rules, and allowing enterprises with significant emission reduction results to obtain tangible benefits, truly achieving "emission reduction benefits". At the same time, efforts should be made to establish a long-term mechanism for digital supervision, innovate differentiated incentive policies, and improve standards and technological systems. Jin Minghong, a second level inspector of the Environmental Resources Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, believes that the current steel industry is in a period of reduced development and deep transformation, and there is still significant room for improvement in energy conservation and carbon reduction levels in the industry. The entire industry needs to continuously optimize its product structure, vigorously carry out energy-saving, carbon reduction, and coal reduction renovations, promote industrial upgrading and green low-carbon transformation. Water, as a fundamental natural resource and strategic economic resource, plays an irreplaceable role in industrial production, especially in the steel industry. Currently, China is focusing on strengthening the rigid constraint effect of water resources and accelerating the establishment of a rigid constraint system for water resources. Zhang Jiqun, Deputy Director and Chief Engineer of the Water Conservation Promotion Center of the Ministry of Water Resources, believes that in this context, as a major water user, steel enterprises should meet the rigid constraint requirements of policies on water conservation, make full use of water-saving preferential policies, and grasp the trend of digital and intelligent development. It is worth mentioning that in March of this year, the steel industry was officially included in the national carbon market. The attendees stated that currently, the expansion of the steel industry still faces difficulties such as weak data foundation, insufficient carbon emission management capabilities, and a balance between emission reduction and growth. It is suggested that steel enterprises accelerate the promotion of green and low-carbon transformation, improve production processes, develop low-carbon technologies, reduce carbon emissions levels, and lay a solid foundation for entering the national carbon market as soon as possible; Familiarize yourself with the requirements and technical rules of the carbon market as soon as possible, start developing compliance strategies, participate in market transactions, and reasonably control compliance costs; Comprehensively improve data quality, understand the carbon emission baseline, enhance the level of carbon emission measurement, equip and manage measuring instruments in accordance with accounting guidelines, accurately calculate the input and output of fuel in each process, carbon emissions, and the production of pig iron, crude steel and other process products. ”Lu Shize, Deputy Director of the Climate Change Response Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, stated that it is necessary to strengthen the capacity building of enterprises, establish specialized personnel and technical teams to be responsible for the national carbon market work, strengthen the construction of internal carbon emission management systems, ensure the implementation, refinement, and implementation of various data quality control measures at the enterprise and key facility levels, and resolutely prevent data fraud. Liu Haiyan, Director and Associate Researcher of the Market Mechanism Research Department at the National Climate Change Strategy Research and International Cooperation Center, stated that unlike mandatory carbon markets, voluntary carbon markets are built on the basis of voluntary and autonomous participation by enterprises. The national carbon market allows key emission units to use national certified voluntary emission reductions not exceeding 5% of their carbon emission quotas to offset their quota payments annually. It is recommended that steel companies participate in the voluntary emission reduction market to help them effectively reduce compliance costs, scientifically allocate carbon assets, obtain emission reduction contribution benefits, and accelerate the cultivation of new driving forces for green and low-carbon development. (New Society)