The heavy oil resources is relatively rich in China，and the development mode is mainly thermal recovery with high energy consumption and high emissions，which emits more than 1 600 × 10⁴ tons of CO₂ annually. With the proposal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals，the quality improvement and efficiency enhancement of heavy oil resources development，as well as energy saving and emission reduction，have become one of the research hotspots in the energy field in China. In this paper，the application status of four conventional thermal recovery technologies was reviewed，in which the dominant steam huff and puff has been in the late stage of development and needs to be converted in terms of the development mode；the steam drive，SAGD，and fire drive technologies still have a lot of problems，which affects the promotion and application of these technologies. Under the background of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality，non-condensate gas-assisted steam thermal recovery and efficiency enhancement technologies，chemical-assisted steam thermal recovery and efficiency enhancement technologies，drive-drain composite enhancement thermal recovery technologies，in-situ catalytic reforming hydrothermal cracking technology for heavy oil reservoirs，CO₂ fracturing and huff and puff mining for low-permeability heavy oil reservoirs，and gas-chemistry composite cold recovery technologies for ordinary heavy oil reservoirs were analyzed. The recovery enhancement mechanism and research application were described，and by synthesizing Chinese and international experience and development status，the study proposed the future direction and development trend of the research and development. The study concludes that under the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality，it is necessary to improve the efficiency of the whole process，optimize the energy consumption structure of oilfields，vigorously develop low-carbon thermal recovery technology，promote the transition from thermal to cold recovery process，and vigorously develop high-efficiency cold recovery technology and other technologies and means，so as to realize the quality improvement and efficiency enhancement of difficult-to-recover heavy oil reservoirs，as well as energy saving and emission reduction.