Hong Mingji, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference: Accelerate the standardization of carbon emission reduction calculations in the field of catering consumption

On March 2, the China Chain Store & Franchise Association held a media communication meeting for representatives of the two sessions of the chain industry in 2022. Hong Mingji, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and executive director and chief executive officer of Hop Hing Group Holdings Limited, shared a number of suggestions on the spot. In order to promote the carbon neutrality of catering consumption, Hong Mingji suggested that the standardization process of carbon emission reduction calculations in the field of catering consumption should be accelerated. In the key links of food design, catering packaging, and advocating conservation in catering consumption, the underlying logic of carbon calculation is clarified, and carbon emission reduction calculation standards are formed. At the same time, it is recommended that the relevant departments recognize that the retail industry meets the industry conditions for R&D expenses plus deduction and cancel its restrictions, so as to increase the enthusiasm of the whole industry for scientific and technological innovation.

Hong Mingji, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, executive director and chief executive officer of Hop Hing Group Holdings Limited. Figure/profile picture

Incorporate carbon emission reductions from food and beverage consumption into the carbon trading system

In October 2021, the Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on The Complete, Accurate and Comprehensive Implementation of the New Development Concept to Achieve Carbon Neutrality was issued, which formulated a roadmap for the mainland's carbon peak carbon neutrality work, including accelerating the formation of a green production lifestyle. Hong Mingji believes that the carbon reduction scene of catering consumption is mainly concentrated in the design of dishes, catering packaging, advocating conservation and other links, how to calculate carbon, how to form a carbon neutral closed loop, but also from the standardization, marketization and other aspects of national co-ordination, catering consumption carbon emission reduction should also be included in the carbon trading system.

He said that the public has participated in various projects to reduce the carbon emissions of catering consumption in the field of daily consumption, which can allow more public participation and show large-scale growth. However, the public's carbon emission reduction in catering consumption is relatively scattered, difficult to quantify and standardize, while the public's carbon emission reduction is difficult to count and difficult to enter the carbon trading system.

"First of all, we must speed up the standardization process of carbon emission reduction calculations in the field of food and beverage consumption. In the key links of catering consumption such as dish design, catering packaging, and advocating conservation, clarify the underlying logic of carbon calculation, and form carbon emission reduction calculation standards; at the same time, consider the reasonable difference range of carbon emission factors in various places, implement the rules of mutual recognition of carbon calculation standards, break geographical restrictions; certify the carbon emission reduction standards of localities, groups and enterprises, and open up public carbon reduction platforms and private carbon reduction platforms. ”

Hong Mingji mentioned that by encouraging low-carbon catering consumption behavior, we can also promote the formation of a green and low-carbon catering consumption trend, and feedback the big data of low-carbon catering consumption to the production end to promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the production end.

Abolish the industry restriction on the deduction of R&D expenses in the retail industry

According to the 2021 "Basic Situation of Chain Enterprises" survey of the China Chain Store & Franchise Association, 60%-70% of the top 100 chain enterprises invest more than 5 million yuan in digital transformation every year. According to the Notice on Improving the Pre-tax Deduction Policy for Research and Development Expenses jointly issued by the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation and the Ministry of Science and Technology, the R&D expenses of six major industries, including tobacco manufacturing, accommodation and catering, wholesale and retail, are excluded. Hong Mingji believes that this not only weakens the digital transformation capabilities of physical retail enterprises, but also causes more unfair competition online and offline.

"Today's development of various industries are inseparable from scientific and technological innovation, the retail industry in order to achieve online and offline integration, and constantly increase investment in the Internet and big data research and development, independent development of small programs, Apps, member malls for the enterprise." According to the State Administration of Taxation's Guidelines on the New Policy on Pre-tax Deduction of R&D Expenses, retail enterprises independently develop R&D activities that fully comply with the provisions of additional deductions, such as software products suitable for their own characteristics and big data analysis platforms. ”

At the same time, the retail industry, which is in the initial stage of R&D investment, on the one hand, needs a large number of highly educated and technical talents, but the labor cost remains high, on the other hand, it needs to purchase various types of advanced equipment and software to adapt to its R&D activities. "For example, Yonghui Supermarket has sales of 104.5 billion yuan and R&D investment of 266 million yuan in 2020; Tianhong Department Store has sales of 29.6 billion yuan in 2020 and R&D investment of 55 million yuan." Hong Mingji said, "Relaxing the restrictions on the deduction industry can greatly reduce the burden on enterprises, so that enterprises have no worries when boldly trying scientific and technological innovation activities." The retail industry has also invested a lot of R&D expenditure on scientific and technological innovation activities, and the removal of industry restrictions on R&D expenses plus deduction is a necessary way to encourage technological innovation of enterprises. ”

Scientific and accurate control of cold chain food

Not long ago, the joint prevention and control mechanism of the State Council issued "two guidelines" such as the "Technical Guidelines for the Prevention and Control of the New Coronavirus in cold chain food production and operation (second edition)", accurately positioning "key places such as centralized supervision warehouses or cold storage stations" and "high-risk positions such as porters and boxers", and clearly proposing that "imported cold chain food loading and transportation tools and packaging should in principle only carry out preventive disinfection once to avoid repeated disinfection" and other scientific guidance.

Through research, Hong Mingji also found that since 2021, some regulatory authorities have increased the number of cold chain food control layer by layer, expanding the scope of cold chain food control, which has greatly increased the operational difficulties of enterprises and made chain retail and catering enterprises that have been seriously affected by the epidemic worse. He said that individual localities implement a "one-size-fits-all" policy, and even if the requirements are met, they are not allowed to sell or use imported cold chain food. "The 'one-size-fits-all' ban and disguised ban will cause a large number of imported cold chain food to expire or expire, which will not only bring significant losses to enterprises, but also cause serious food waste."

Hong Mingji mentioned that some regions require that imported cold chain food that has been in other cities (the first station cold storage, centralized warehouse) has done preventive disinfection and nucleic acid testing must re-enter the local supervision warehouse (transit inspection warehouse) for repeated disinfection and testing, and some places expand the management scope of imported cold chain food, imported non-cold chain food, domestic cold chain food must also be controlled in accordance with the relevant requirements of imported cold chain food, and the definition boundary of "imported cold chain food practitioners" is not clear.

He suggested that the prevention and control requirements for imported cold chain food should be based on laws and regulations. All localities should timely release relevant cold chain food prevention and control policies in official channels, so that enterprises can obtain and know at the first time. National mutual recognition of local supervision warehouse imported cold chain food preventive disinfection and nucleic acid test results and related supporting documents. At the same time, it is necessary to further clarify the concept and scope of jurisdiction of "imported cold chain food", and the scope of control must not be arbitrarily expanded. Accurately define the scope of "cold chain food practitioners", and do not include employees of supermarkets, convenience stores, and catering stores that generally sell or use imported cold chain food into the scope of "cold chain food practitioners" for special control.

Beijing News reporter Wang Ping

Edited by Wang Lin Proofread by Lucy