Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment held a mobilization and deployment meeting for the power generation industry to participate in the national carbon emissions trading market to promote the construction of the national carbon emissions trading market. In December last year, the "National Carbon Emissions Trading Market Construction Plan (Power Generation Industry)" was issued, clearly taking the power generation industry as a breakthrough to launch a national carbon emissions trading system.

What is the current progress of the construction of the national carbon market? What problems are faced? How to proceed next? The reporter recently conducted an interview.

Give play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and achieve carbon emission reduction in the most cost-effective way

Carbon emission rights trading refers to determining the total amount of greenhouse gas carbon dioxide emissions within a certain time limit in a certain area, and allocating it to individuals or organizations in the form of quotas or emission permits, so that they have legal carbon emission rights and allow them to do so. This right is traded among market participants like a commodity to ensure that actual carbon emissions do not exceed a limited total amount of emissions.

"Companies with low costs can reduce emissions more and sell excess quotas to companies with high emission reduction costs through the carbon market, giving full play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation and achieving carbon emission reductions in the most cost-effective way." China. Wang Zhixuan, member of the Party Committee and full-time vice chairman of the Electric Power Enterprises Federation, said.

Zhuang Guotai, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that global climate change is one of the most serious challenges facing the sustainable development of mankind. Actively addressing climate change has become a global consensus and a general trend. "Building a carbon market will help reduce fossil energy consumption from the source, collaboratively reduce carbon dioxide and air pollutant emissions, help promote enterprises to resolve excess production capacity and transform and upgrade, promote the development of green and low-carbon industries, and at the same time help achieve my country's response to climate change and Low-carbon development goals and high-quality development.”

In 2011, my country launched carbon emissions trading pilot projects in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Guangdong and other provinces and cities. "The pilot work started from scratch and was advanced steadily, overcoming many difficulties and challenges." Zhuang Guotai said that so far, the seven pilot carbon markets have covered nearly 3,000 key emission units in multiple industries such as electricity, steel, cement, etc., with cumulative transactions The volume exceeded 250 million tons, the cumulative transaction value exceeded 5.5 billion yuan, and the company's overall contract fulfillment rate remained at a high level.

"The total amount and intensity of carbon emissions within the pilot scope have achieved a 'double reduction', which shows the good effect of the carbon market in controlling carbon emissions at a lower cost." Zhuang Guotai said.

Huaxin Cement was among the first batch of enterprises in Hubei Province to be included in carbon emission management in 2014. That year, the company obtained 20.46 million tons of carbon quotas. At the end of the annual performance period, its actual emissions exceeded the quota by 1.153 million tons. It ultimately spent more than 30 million yuan to purchase carbon quotas. "The money spent to purchase quotas is not a small amount of money for us, and we have learned a heavy lesson." said the person in charge of the company's climate protection department.

Starting from the second year, Huaxin Cement has strengthened carbon asset management and made great efforts in energy conservation and emission reduction. Through independently developed technology, the company processes domestic waste and factory waste into waste-derived fuel to replace coal. Today, all cement plants owned by Huaxin Cement have completed technological transformation, achieving a surplus in carbon emission credits while reducing production costs. In 2015, the company made a net profit of more than 9 million yuan by selling 424,000 tons of surplus carbon quotas.

There are still many such enterprises in pilot provinces and cities. The pilot work has laid a solid foundation for the construction of the national carbon market. In December last year, the "National Carbon Emissions Trading Market Construction Plan (Power Generation Industry)" was issued, taking the lead in launching a national carbon emissions trading system in the power generation industry (including combined heat and power). Participants are enterprises or other economic organizations whose annual emissions in the power generation industry reach 26,000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent. There are more than 1,700 companies included in the first batch of carbon trading, with total annual emissions exceeding 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, accounting for about 1/3 of the country's carbon emissions.

The relevant person in charge of the Department of Climate Change Response of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said that the power generation industry has a good data foundation, relatively single products, relatively standardized industry management, and large overall emissions, so it was chosen as a breakthrough.

A unified information platform and accurate carbon emission data are crucial to the effective operation of the carbon market

The construction of the carbon market is a major institutional innovation and a complex systematic project that requires effective management mechanisms, complete regulations and systems, a reliable trading system, and real emission data. "Due to the complexity of the carbon market, the breadth of its impact, and its high correlation with various policies, it is necessary to lay a solid foundation, coordinate relationships, and advance steadily." Wang Zhixuan said.

From unrestricted emissions to tradable, carbon emission rights must obtain a "price" based on the setting of the total amount and the allocation of quotas.

How to set the total amount? Zhang Xiliang, director of the Institute of Energy and Environmental Economics at Tsinghua University, believes that when setting the cap, it is necessary to establish market coverage, grasp the national carbon emission reduction goals, and also consider the affordability and competitiveness of industries and enterprises. Judging from international experience and pilot practice, the setting of the total amount faces many uncertainties, and the principles of "moderate tightening" and "step-by-step" should be followed.

"Too loose quotas will cause carbon prices to remain low, barely reflecting the impact of carbon costs on production and operation, causing the carbon market to become a display. But too tight quotas will excessively increase corporate costs and affect the stable and healthy development of the economy." Wang Zhixuan said that the overall "moderate tightening" must be achieved, and when quotas are allocated to specific enterprises, they must be consistent with the policy orientation of energy and power development, energy conservation and emission reduction orientation, etc.

Zhang Xiliang said that there are two common quota allocation methods, the paid allocation method and the free allocation method. In order to make it easier for relevant enterprises to accept the carbon market, carbon market quotas should be distributed mainly for free.

In the pilot province Hubei Province, carbon emission quotas are divided into annual initial quotas, new reserved quotas and government reserved quotas. The annual initial quota is the sum of the initial quotas of all included enterprises, and is distributed to enterprises free of charge at one time through the registration system. The new reserved quota refers to the quota determined based on the company's new production capacity and changes in output. At the same time, Hubei has set aside 8% of the total quota to avoid excessive market fluctuations and balance market supply and demand by releasing and repurchasing quotas into the market.

Accurate and credible carbon emission data is a prerequisite for quota trading, compliance and the implementation of emission reduction targets. "Currently, my country's carbon emission accounting is not accurate enough, and enterprise-level carbon emission data is still incomplete. This will not only cause difficulties in quota allocation, but also affect quota trading." said Wang Yi, deputy director of the Institute of Science and Technology Strategy Consulting of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. .

Wang Yi believes that a unified information platform and accurate carbon emission data are crucial to the effective operation of the carbon market. “Enterprise-level emission data accounting, reporting and verification systems, independent third-party verification agencies, etc. all need to be established before the national carbon market is fully operational.”

We will gradually expand the scope of industries and trading entities participating in the carbon market, and increase the number of trading types.

"The carbon market must pay attention to market rules and reduce government intervention." Wang Zhixuan said that only by forming a reasonable carbon price under the action of the market supply and demand mechanism and the competition mechanism can the carbon market be able to effectively and reasonably allocate emission reduction resources. Through the market competition mechanism, Achieve survival of the fittest and encourage enterprises to save energy and reduce emissions at the lowest cost.

"The carbon market is a price-based policy tool that can only play an effective role in a complete market mechanism." Wang Yi said that the construction of the carbon market must be planned and coordinated with the reform of the energy market and power market, and use the construction Taking advantage of the opportunity of the carbon market, we should further open up the energy and power markets, introduce market mechanisms, and deepen reforms.

To promote the construction of the carbon market, we must speed up the improvement of relevant legal systems. Wang Yi believes that issues such as quota issuance, trading and verification rules, and conflict of interest prevention in the market must be clarified in the law.

"Formulate laws, administrative regulations, local regulations and government rules and regulations related to carbon trading to form a complete legal system, which is the fundamental guarantee for the carbon market." Wang Zhixuan said that the construction of the carbon trading legal system should focus on Coherence, internal and external coordination.

The power generation industry is a breakthrough in the construction of the carbon market. "As the main body of the carbon market, the power generation industry must carefully sort out every aspect of the carbon market and understand the possible impact of the carbon market and various policy tools on enterprises when faced with a complex new mechanism." Wang Zhixuan suggested that power companies should Increase investment in manpower and material resources, deeply participate in the construction of the carbon market, seek truth from facts, accurately calculate and report data, and make technical reserves to continuously tap the carbon emission reduction potential of enterprises. At the same time, we must strengthen training and master the mechanisms and methods of the carbon market as soon as possible. , Proficient in carbon trading tools.

"For enterprises, building a carbon market is a challenge, but it is more of an opportunity. It encourages enterprises to increase energy conservation and emission reduction on the one hand, reduce emission intensity through technological innovation, and on the other hand, increase the development of clean energy." China Huaneng The relevant person in charge of the Group Co., Ltd. said.

"In accordance with the arrangement of 'first easy before difficult, seeking progress in stability', we will gradually promote the construction of the carbon market in stages and step by step, taking the power generation industry as a breakthrough to take the lead in conducting transactions across the country, and gradually expand the scope of industries participating in the carbon market and The scope of trading entities will be increased, transaction types will be increased, market activity will be increased, while excessive speculation and excessive financialization will be prevented, financial and other risks will be effectively prevented, and the role of the carbon market in controlling greenhouse gas emissions and reducing emission reduction costs for the whole society will be fully utilized." Zhuang Guotai express.