In June of this year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and 15 other departments jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for Establishing a Carbon Footprint Management System", which listed 22 main tasks in a checklist format, clarifying the "task book" and "construction drawings" for the construction of China's carbon footprint management system in the future period. What is carbon footprint? What are the current difficulties in building a carbon footprint system? The reporter conducted an interview on this matter. Insufficient disclosure of carbon footprint urgently requires public participation. Carbon footprint usually refers to the sum of greenhouse gas emissions and removals in the lifecycle of a specific object expressed in carbon dioxide equivalents. The more carbon containing resources such as oil and coal are consumed, the greater the greenhouse gas emissions and carbon footprint. Unlike traditional carbon emissions, carbon footprint calculation refers to the greenhouse gas emissions generated throughout the entire lifecycle of a product, from raw material extraction, processing, manufacturing, use, reuse to waste disposal. It includes not only the product itself, but also the carbon emissions within its industrial chain, supply chain, and other related areas Xu Ming, Vice Dean of the School of Environment at Tsinghua University and Professor of Carbon Neutrality, said. How to calculate carbon footprint? Search for carbon footprint calculators on WeChat, and there are at least eight or nine mini programs like "Daily Carbon Footprint" and "My Carbon Footprint Calculator". Users can roughly calculate their personal carbon footprint by filling in their daily "food intake" and other information. Xiaoye, a post-90s worker in Beijing, pays special attention to environmental protection and has been using a small program to record her personal carbon footprint. Although I often keep records, I don't know what the collected data is for. Many times it's just estimating and filling in, and it's impossible to weigh the raw rice before cooking. I don't think most people around me have paid attention to their personal carbon footprint, "Xiaoye admitted. Lobule's "roast" is not an example. The reporter found in the interview that currently, the public disclosure of carbon footprint information has not formed a trend of nationwide participation, and is more limited to spontaneous individual or organizational behavior. In addition, the field of personal carbon footprint data also faces multiple challenges: the phenomenon of duplicate data collection is common, and there is a lack of effective connectivity between different data collection platforms, which hinders the comprehensive integration and efficient utilization of data. Regarding this, Associate Professor Wang Longwa from the School of Economics and Management at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics believes that accurate calculation of carbon footprint data is a prerequisite for fully utilizing the data. In practical operation, whether it is the carbon footprint of enterprises or individuals, they rely on their own active input, and data estimation is not easy. Ji Xi, a long-term associate professor at the School of Economics of Peking University, said that currently, the information disclosure system related to the environment and carbon emissions is not yet perfect, and it is difficult for the public to distinguish the authenticity of information. At the same time, there is a lack of strong policies and market incentive mechanisms, which makes it difficult for enterprises and individuals to reduce their carbon footprint. The exploration of the personal carbon account system in Quzhou City, Zhejiang Province is worth referring to. Since 2018, Quzhou Branch of the People's Bank of China has taken the lead in creating Quzhou's personal carbon account system, guiding banking institutions under its jurisdiction to comprehensively evaluate and convert individual carbon emission reduction contributions into carbon credits by using financial technology means, thus promoting the wide application of this system in various life scenes. At present, Quzhou City has established 2.18 million individual carbon accounts, covering 95% of the permanent population. More than 76 million data have been collected and stored in accordance with the law, resulting in a cumulative reduction of 59200 tons of individual carbon emissions. It has become an important carrier for the public to participate in carbon reduction. The reporter learned from Quzhou Kecheng Rural Commercial Bank that, under the guidance of Quzhou Branch of the People's Bank of China, the bank has collected more than 30 low-carbon behaviors for online transfer, mobile payment and other financial services of its customers, as well as carbon reduction in public transport, ETC and other transportation, and collected them into Quzhou's personal carbon account system for summary, emission reduction accounting, carbon efficiency evaluation, and then generated a personal carbon report. Unlike other places, personal carbon accounts in Quzhou can not only participate in various daily consumption discount activities, but commercial banks will also evaluate the individual carbon account subject in three colors of "deep green, medium green, and light green" according to carbon reduction emissions, and apply "personal carbon data" to the entire life cycle of financing process access, credit, credit, and post loan management. Carbon Credit "is a green financing product launched by Kecheng Rural Commercial Bank. Mr. Liao, a citizen living in Fushan Street, Kecheng District, obtained a credit limit of 500000 yuan for "Carbon Credit" due to his personal carbon account being marked as "Deep Green". He said, "I never expected that the habits of online business processing, public transportation, and waste recycling in daily life would bring me such unexpected benefits." "Personal carbon accounts are an innovation in financial technology that can effectively guide the public to practice low-carbon behavior. However, it is necessary to ensure standardized management processes and accurate data collection," said Wang Longwa. Ji Xi also holds the same view, reminding that "setting up a carbon account faces challenges such as high data collection and management costs, difficulty in privacy protection, and difficulty in achieving uniformity in carbon footprint accounting methods. It is necessary to comprehensively consider various factors such as technology, law, and social acceptance. We can adopt a progressive approach, select pilot projects, define important areas of carbon footprint accounting, and gradually build and improve them from major regions and fields." Accelerating the establishment of a carbon footprint background database In recent years, some well-known enterprises and brands have also begun to make efforts in carbon footprint, and they have chosen to label their products with carbon labels. Coca Cola and Kangshifu have launched carbon label products, Nike uses factory scraps and recycled materials to make new shoes, and household appliances have also rolled up energy efficiency labels... The trend of green consumption has penetrated into all aspects of clothing, food, housing, and transportation. The 2023 China Consumer Trends Report shows that 73.8% of consumers will prioritize green and environmentally friendly products or brands in their daily lives, with post-90s consumers having the highest acceptance of premium green products. Ji Xi's analysis: "Consumer habits have a direct impact on carbon footprint. For individuals, if the carbon footprint of a product is truly integrated into the market and linked to product prices, it will affect consumer behavior." However, products with carbon labels still account for a minority. Wang Longwa said that it is currently difficult to trace the carbon footprint of products throughout their entire lifecycle, and there is a lack of unified disclosure guidelines and standards. Relevant departments need to issue specific accounting rules to clarify the boundaries of carbon accounting systems for different products, in order to ensure the relative accuracy and comparability of data. Ji Xi suggested: "On the one hand, we need to improve relevant laws and regulations as soon as possible, so that data collection and disclosure have legal basis and evidence to rely on. On the other hand, we need to quickly integrate data disclosure with the market and financial system, and truly link carbon footprint related information and financial rating systems such as prices. At the same time, we need to formulate tax incentives, subsidies or other incentive policies that affect prices, and form effective reward and punishment systems." In the interview, multiple experts unanimously pointed out that the comprehensive disclosure of carbon footprint fundamentally relies on a reliable carbon footprint background database. This is also one of the issues of concern in the Implementation Plan for Establishing a Carbon Footprint Management System. In the past few years, during the export process of Chinese products, the carbon footprint of Chinese products calculated by foreign countries has always been higher than that calculated by China, and foreign trade products face a series of challenges. Building a Chinese independent carbon footprint background database is of great significance for promoting the comprehensive implementation of carbon footprint management in China's industrial products and enhancing green competitiveness in the international market. Many countries use databases from Switzerland and the United States to calculate China's product carbon footprint, but these databases have relatively little and outdated data about China, which cannot accurately reflect China's current industrial development and technological level Xu Ming said that this has also led to unfair competition for Chinese products in the international arena. To this end, Xu Ming, together with more than 180 experts from 43 universities and research institutions at home and abroad, including the Institute of Urban Environment of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fudan University and Nanchang University, created China's first open and transparent life cycle unit process database. At present, the database gathers over 70000 publicly available data from more than 90 industries and 4500 unit processes in China. These data are not only standardized, complete, and traceable, but also open and free to use globally, and actively explore exchange and mutual recognition with databases from other countries. With China's own database, companies can have one more choice and more say, "said Xu Ming. When increasing the cultivation of "dual carbon" talents to help achieve the goal of carbon reduction, the demand for "dual carbon" talents has sharply increased. According to data from the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation, during the 14th Five Year Plan period, the demand for "dual carbon" talents in China will be around 550000 to 1 million, while currently there are only about 100000 related practitioners. Talents in the 'dual carbon' field need to have interdisciplinary backgrounds, with environmental science as the foundation, followed by management, economics, sociology, psychology, and so on Wang Changbo said that talent cultivation in the "dual carbon" field also poses challenges to teachers. At the same time, he also emphasized the importance of transforming theory into practical application. Many universities have already begun to explore this. In September 2021, Tsinghua University established the Carbon Neutrality Research Institute and set up eight research centers, covering cross disciplinary fields such as low-carbon energy, new power systems, zero carbon buildings, zero carbon transportation, deep industrial carbon reduction, climate change and carbon neutrality strategies, climate governance and carbon finance, etc., to promote the construction and cultivation of a carbon neutrality talent team with a systematic approach. In order to combine the theory and practice of the "dual carbon" field, in addition to scientific research and teaching, Xu Ming and Professor Wang Yutao from the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering at Fudan University also initiated the Environmental Systems Engineering Summer School, screening students from domestic and foreign universities and research institutes to carry out systematic learning. The goal of the Environmental Systems Engineering Summer School is to disseminate and promote universal theories and methods in the development process of the discipline, and cultivate more young reserve forces for the discipline of Environmental Systems Engineering, "said Xu Ming. The School of Economics and Management at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics has also conducted a series of explorations. Establish an interdisciplinary research team and publish relevant textbooks such as "Climate Finance" and "Energy Price Time Series Analysis". Among them, the energy soft science team has gathered more than 20 teachers from majors such as environmental science, atmospheric science, economics, and management. Wang Longwao introduced that the team is currently offering a master's navigation course on "Energy Economy and Environmental Management in the New Era" throughout the school, as well as the first batch of dual carbon micro majors. They are also offering courses on carbon emission accounting methodology and climate change economics to senior undergraduate students in the school. In addition, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics also relies on the energy soft science team to build a sustainable energy system theme innovation zone, providing students with a research and practical platform. Not only universities, but also an increasing number of local enterprises and brands are actively taking on social responsibility by initiating or participating in public welfare projects in the "dual carbon" field, such as carbon footprint tracking, green supply chain management, low-carbon product certification, etc., driving the entire industrial chain towards low-carbon and green transformation, while also cultivating more professional talents with "dual carbon" awareness and ability for society. Increasing the cultivation of "dual carbon" talents will effectively promote the establishment, improvement, and efficient operation of the carbon footprint management system. The introduction of the Implementation Plan for Establishing a Carbon Footprint Management System has the inevitability and necessity of the times, aiming to promote sustainable development and the achievement of the 'dual carbon' goal. The 'dual carbon' goal is a top-down macro goal in China, which cannot be separated from micro levels such as individuals, enterprises, and products