Several Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Environmental Protection Equipment Manufacturing Industry Have Been Issued.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the State Administration for Market Regulation recently jointly issued the “Several Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Environmental Protection Equipment Manufacturing Industry.”

The “Opinions” propose that, By 2027, the market share of advanced technological equipment will have increased significantly, the “weak links” in the industrial chains for key‑area technologies will have been largely addressed, and the “strong points” in technological equipment will have established a competitive advantage characterized by domestic leadership and international expansion.

By 2030, the environmental‑technology equipment industry chain will achieve self‑reliance and controllability in its weak links, while further strengthening its competitive advantages in key technologies. The environmental‑equipment manufacturing sector will undergo a comprehensive upgrade, shifting from conventional pollution control toward green, low‑carbon, and circular development.

The “Opinions” set forth 12 policy measures across four areas: strengthening research and development of critical technologies, accelerating the dissemination of advanced technologies, fostering new drivers for industry growth, and optimizing the industrial development environment. Among these, Strengthening efforts to tackle critical technologies will focus on bottlenecks and chokepoints in industrial and supply chains, launch a “challenge‑based recruitment” initiative for key technologies, implement a three‑year action plan to upgrade major environmental protection technologies and equipment, and further advance the application of next‑generation information technologies such as 5G and artificial intelligence in areas including the design and manufacturing of environmental protection equipment, pollution control, and environmental monitoring.

Optimizing the industrial development environment will encourage environmental‑protection equipment enterprises to hone their expertise in specific niche markets, fostering a cohort of companies that meet industry‑standard criteria, specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative “little giant” firms, and manufacturing single‑product champions. It will also drive leading enterprises to shift from offering single‑domain environmental‑technology solutions to providing multi‑domain “product‑plus‑service” offerings, while strengthening regulatory guidance to promote a fair‑competition, healthy, and orderly market environment.

According to estimates by relevant industry associations, the total output value of China’s environmental protection equipment manufacturing sector reached RMB 920 billion in 2024. The development of environmental technologies is characterized by “overall parity with leading regions” and “localized leadership,” with complete machines and integrated systems largely meeting domestic pollution-control needs.

Several Opinions of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Two Other Departments on Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Environmental Protection Equipment Manufacturing Industry

MIIT Joint Circular No. 49 [2025]

To the competent authorities for industry and information technology, ecological environment, and market regulation of all provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the central government, separately listed cities, and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps:

The environmental protection equipment manufacturing industry is a crucial foundation for advancing the green and low-carbon transition and provides the technological underpinning for building a Beautiful China. To consolidate and enhance the competitive edge of the entire environmental protection equipment industrial chain and to promote high-quality development of this sector, the following recommendations are put forward.

I. General Requirements

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Second and Third Plenary Sessions of the 20th CPC Central Committee, fully apply Xi Jinping’s Thought on Ecological Civilization, and closely align with the development needs of environmental protection equipment in the context of comprehensively advancing the building of a Beautiful China. With the theme of promoting high-quality development, we will uphold scientific and technological innovation, strengthen the application of advanced technologies, accelerate industrial transformation, and optimize the development environment, thereby providing robust equipment support for the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development.

The primary objectives are: by 2027, to achieve a significant increase in the market share of advanced technological equipment, further strengthen the standards system, essentially address the critical bottlenecks in the industrial chains of key‑area technologies and equipment, and establish a competitive advantage whereby domestically dominant, internationally exportable technologies and equipment form the backbone; thereby building a relatively complete supply system for environmental protection equipment. By 2030, ensure that the weak links in the environmental‑technology‑equipment industrial chain are independently controllable, further expand the strengths of leading technologies and equipment, and substantially enhance the industry’s scale, product quality, and overall economic performance. In addition, cultivate a group of leading enterprises with strong innovation capabilities and comprehensive competitiveness, driving the environmental‑protection equipment manufacturing sector toward a full‑scale upgrade—from traditional pollution control to green, low‑carbon, and circular development.

II. Promoting Research and Development of Key Environmental Protection Technologies and Equipment

(1) Launch a “challenge‑based leadership” initiative for critical technologies. Focusing on bottlenecks and chokepoints in industrial and supply chains, implement a three‑year action plan to upgrade major environmental protection technologies and equipment. Centered on key areas such as the treatment and reuse of high‑salinity wastewater, dry flue‑gas purification, and the identification and monitoring of persistent organic pollutants, this initiative will adopt a “challenge‑based leadership” approach to break through shortcomings in specialized sensors, low‑temperature denitrification catalysts, and other essential components, materials, chemical agents, and control systems, thereby accelerating breakthroughs in integrated technological packages and equipment.

(II) Establish an Innovation Center for the Environmental Protection Equipment Manufacturing Industry. Optimize strategic scientific and technological capabilities in the environmental protection equipment sector, and encourage leading enterprises, universities, and research institutions to jointly establish such an innovation center. Adopting a “company-plus‑alliance” organizational model, integrate relevant innovation resources, strategically deploy the development and application of forward‑looking and disruptive technologies, and provide R&D dissemination and first‑time commercialization services for common key technologies, thereby driving the green and low‑carbon transformation of traditional processes and products.

(3) Establish pilot-scale testing platforms for environmental protection equipment. Focusing on urgently needed technologies—such as high-performance water‑treatment membranes, volatile organic compound (VOC) control systems, and emerging contaminant detection devices—guide leading enterprises to spearhead the development of state‑of‑the‑art pilot platforms and ensure their appropriate public access. These platforms will offer specialized services, including technology R&D and commercialization, product performance evaluation, shared use of instruments and equipment, and validation of equipment applications, thereby enhancing the translation of scientific and technological advances into industrial applications.

III. Accelerate the Promotion and Application of Advanced Environmental Protection Technologies and Equipment

(4) Explore the establishment of a user‑evaluation mechanism for environmental protection equipment. Encourage user enterprises to comprehensively assess factors such as equipment performance, efficiency, energy and water consumption, service life, and operation and maintenance when making procurement decisions, thereby promoting purchases based on quality and value and preventing awarding contracts solely on the basis of price. Provide guidance to third‑party institutions to issue recommended lists of environmental protection technologies and equipment based on user feedback, thus facilitating the broader and more widespread adoption of high‑quality solutions.

(5) Strengthen the alignment of supply and demand for environmental protection technologies and equipment. Regularly update and revise the “National Catalogue of Major Environmental Protection Technologies and Equipment Encouraged for Development” and the “National Catalogue of Technical Guidelines for Pollution Prevention and Control,” establishing effective channels to connect manufacturers of environmental protection equipment with end‑users. Intensify efforts to publicize and promote exemplary cases from key projects. Enhance industry‑finance collaboration in the environmental protection equipment sector, facilitating the precise matching of financial resources with enterprises’ financing needs. Encourage industry associations, industrial park enterprises, universities, research institutes, and other stakeholders to organize exchanges on advanced environmental protection technologies and activities that facilitate supply‑demand matchmaking.

IV. Fostering New Momentum for Industry Development

(6) Promote the transformation of pollutant control toward synergistic efficiency in pollution reduction and carbon mitigation. Encourage enterprises engaged in air pollution control, wastewater treatment, and solid waste management to develop new processes and technologies, and to design innovative multi-pollutant treatment equipment, thereby supporting the coordinated reduction of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, fine particulate matter, volatile organic compounds, and other pollutants. Enhance the energy and carbon efficiency of such equipment, advance the resource‑based utilization of waste, and encourage companies to expand their operations into greenhouse gas emission reduction, emerging contaminant management, and the treatment of emerging solid wastes.

(7) Support leading environmental protection equipment enterprises in “going global.” Encourage these companies to actively undertake international turnkey projects for energy conservation and environmental protection, thereby expanding exports of advanced technologies and equipment. Promote the establishment of international scientific and technological organizations in the environmental protection equipment sector, and support domestic firms in participating in international cooperation initiatives on environmental protection technologies and equipment, while engaging in overseas joint ventures and investments. Assist qualified enterprises in extending their industrial value chains to build multinational corporations that integrate international contracting, overseas R&D, cross-border e‑commerce, and product trade, thereby enhancing the international visibility and competitiveness of their products and facilitating the global outreach of environmental protection technologies and equipment.

(8) Enhance the high-end, intelligent, and green capabilities of traditional environmental protection equipment. Fully leverage next-generation information technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, and the industrial internet to elevate the digitalization, intelligence, and greenness of environmental protection equipment across all stages—design, manufacturing, operation, and maintenance. Focus on areas like smart water management, pipeline cleaning and decontamination, and environmental monitoring to develop a suite of environmental‑protection robots, intelligent pollution‑control systems, and remote‑operation and maintenance devices, while accelerating the adoption and application of advanced technologies such as simulation software, virtual reality, and digital twins.

V. Optimizing the Industrial Development Environment

(9) Strengthen policy guidance. Implement policies related to large-scale equipment upgrades and the trade-in of used consumer goods for new ones, and support the modernization and upgrading of eligible environmental protection equipment projects. Leverage national key R&D programs and other mechanisms to advance research on cutting-edge environmental technologies and equipment, and to build pilot‑scale demonstration platforms. Fully implement insurance and compensation schemes for the first‑of‑its‑kind major technical equipment and the initial batches of new materials, thereby fostering the widespread adoption and application of advanced environmental protection technologies and equipment. Timely explore government procurement policies that provide support for environmental protection equipment. Intensify efforts to cultivate manufacturing “single‑champion” enterprises and specialized, refined, distinctive, and innovative “little giant” firms in the environmental protection equipment sector.

(10) Improve the environmental protection equipment standards system. Enhance the product standard framework for specific sub‑sectors of environmental protection equipment, and promote the serialization and modularization of non‑standard products. Establish a standardization body for the environmental protection equipment industry. Develop mandatory standards covering energy consumption, water consumption, operation and maintenance, service life, and safety. Strengthen the development of metrological technical specifications for urgently needed key equipment, such as online and on‑site monitoring instruments. Encourage leading enterprises to participate in the formulation and revision of international standards, thereby increasing the success rate of Chinese companies in submitting international standard proposals. Actively engage in the development of international standards for flagship equipment in areas such as desulfurization, denitrification, dust removal, municipal wastewater treatment, and large‑scale waste incineration plants.

(11) Strengthen talent development. Leveraging platforms such as the National Base for Outstanding Engineering Practitioners, we will conduct training programs for environmental protection equipment engineers and “craftsmen.” Through initiatives like the Manufacturing Talent Support Program, we will support the cultivation of innovative entrepreneurs, advanced manufacturing technology professionals, and skilled practitioners in cutting-edge foundational processes within the environmental protection equipment sector. At the same time, universities will intensify their efforts to train engineering and technical personnel in environmental protection technologies and equipment, adopting a corporate‑customized talent‑development approach. Industry associations and standardization bodies are encouraged to provide specialized training to assist enterprises in expanding into overseas markets.

(12) Optimize the market environment. Improve relevant laws and regulations on product quality, and strengthen quality supervision and management of environmental protection equipment. Formulate and revise industry standards for the environmental protection equipment manufacturing sector to guide its orderly development. Leverage green finance by supporting eligible environmental protection equipment enterprises in issuing green bonds and expanding their financing channels. Mobilize dedicated funds and government investment funds to increase support for technological innovation, intelligent manufacturing, and service‑oriented transformation in the environmental protection equipment industry, thereby fostering a favorable financial ecosystem that underpins industrial growth.

Ministry of Industry and Information Technology

Ministry of Ecology and Environment

State Administration for Market Regulation

March 4, 2025