Chinese battery makers are “piling into” zero-carbon industrial estates as Europe prepares to cap the emissions embedded in the batteries it imports, a defensive response that could become an exportable advantage in industrial carbon management, according to a report by Gavekal Technologies. The zero-carbon industrial estates – designed to tie factories directly to renewable power and operate under strict site-wide CO₂ caps – are seen by Chinese battery makers as a route to easier compliance, according to the report published this week. While the estates began as part of China’s domestic climate push, the EU’s carbon rules are the real force behind their sudden popularity, according to the report. Policymakers in China have repeatedly cited the bloc’s carbon rules as “drivers of the country’s industrial decarbonisation efforts”, it said. Battery, electric-vehicle and energy-storage projects account for 79 of the announced projects in the 52 pilot estates, far exceeding traditional sectors such as steel and aluminium, which only have 19 projects.