Beijing is pushing for the application of carbon inclusiveness to make "green behavior" more marketable

Beijing, the capital, will further promote the application and practice of the carbon inclusive mechanism, create a carbon inclusive mechanism that promotes carbon reduction by digital means, and make the public's "green behavior" more marketable.

At the "2023 Beijing Green Life Season" event launched today (15th), Lai Xianyu, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Development and Reform Commission, said that promoting the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development is the basic policy to solve China's resource and ecological environment problems, and it is also an important support for achieving high-quality development and sustainable development.

The first financial reporter learned at the launching ceremony that the "Beijing version" of the personal carbon ledger has been launched, and the public can get an exclusive "personal carbon ledger" in a few simple steps by scanning the code and registering, and the emission reduction of each green behavior will be quantified to grams. For example, riding a shared bicycle can achieve an emission reduction of 250 grams per kilometer; If you choose "no utensils" for takeaway, you can get 45.72 grams of emission reduction each time, and you can get 5 grams of emission reduction by using electronic face sheets for logistics... These are eligible for green point incentives.

"From the perspective of China's carbon emission structure, 26% of energy consumption is directly used in public life, and the resulting carbon emissions account for about one-third." Tao Lan, executive chairman of the Carbon Inclusion Special Committee and founder of Green Puhui, told the first financial reporter that the current number of motor vehicles has reached 430 million, and transportation carbon emissions account for about 10% of the country's carbon emissions. Therefore, it is the right time to make the whole people aware of the importance of carbon reduction and promote the formation of a carbon inclusive mechanism.

Tao Lan introduced that up to now, 21 provinces and cities across the country have taken the establishment of a carbon inclusive mechanism as a key task, and Beijing, Shenzhen, Shanghai, Tianjin and other cities have successively introduced work plans for the carbon inclusive mechanism. This indicates that the construction of carbon inclusive mechanism has risen from social appeal and urban practice to the overall layout of national and local ecological protection.

The team led by Tao Lan has developed the "Green Puhui Cloud - Carbon Emission Reduction Digital Ledger", which provides a platform and services for enterprises on the one hand, establishes user/employee carbon ledgers with personal authorization, and then feeds back to enterprises through the calculation engine; On the other hand, it serves the government, forms a regional carbon ledger according to the low-carbon behavior of citizens in the region, and uses digital tools to promote carbon emission reduction of regional residents. For its innovation in tackling climate change, it won the 2021 International Finance Forum (IFF) Global Green Finance Innovation Award.

Du Shaozhong, former deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, vice chairman of the All-China Environment Federation, and chairman of the Carbon Inclusion Committee, believes that carbon inclusion is a carbon emission reduction action with the participation of the whole people. "Individual" is the individual who locks the consumer side, and the "carbon ledger" is to record emission reductions, "today is to give you a reward, and later record your carbon assets." Du Shaozhong said that "digital" is especially indispensable, and if there is no digital technology and digital platform as the foundation, it is inaccurate and difficult to realize the personal carbon account.

As a new thing, personal carbon accounts are still in the initial stage of development. Some experts said that at present, carbon emission reduction at the consumer end has not been included in the scope of the national carbon market, and the trading mechanism of individual carbon assets has not yet been established.

"It is indeed urgent to reduce emissions at the consumer end." Zhang Xin, chief economist of the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation and vice chairman of the Carbon Inclusion Committee, said that at present, China is still in the stage of rapid urbanization, and carbon emissions caused by per capita consumption are still increasing.

Zhang Xin said that the essence of the carbon inclusive mechanism is to promote carbon reduction in the whole society by incentivizing individuals, families and communities, including small and micro enterprises, to take green and low-carbon actions. "Of course, some problems have also been exposed in the process, restricting the development of the carbon inclusive mechanism." For example, how can we effectively quantify the effectiveness of carbon inclusion campaigns, he said? At present, all parties are building a carbon inclusive standard system, but it has also caused chaos and inconsistency in the standard system, and they do not agree with each other. Therefore, it is necessary to break the bottleneck of technology and geography and form a unified standard system.

"In addition, the establishment of an effective incentive model is a key factor in the sustainable development of carbon inclusion." Zhang Xin explained that if the revenue is not enough to support the effective operation of the platform, the service quality of the platform and the service efficiency of the platform will be reduced. By building a digital platform, a variety of projects, multiple scenarios, diversified and multi-level combinations should be combined to improve the integrity and scale of the market.

In May this year, the All-China Environment Federation issued the "Quantitative Guidelines for Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction of Citizens' Green and Low-Carbon Behaviors", which recommended 40 green and low-carbon behaviors in seven categories, including clothing, food, housing, transportation, use, office, and digital finance, contributing a "yardstick" to measuring carbon emission reductions at the consumer end.

According to Zhang Wangcai, director of the Beijing Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Center, the 2023 Beijing Green Life Season, which lasts until the end of October, has eight major sections: Green Office, Green Life, Green Future, Green Travel, Green CD-ROM, Green Landscape, Green Finance, and Green Carbon Credits, covering food, housing, transportation, travel, shopping and other fields. Through online and offline activities, we advocate citizens to join in green life, promote the transformation of green lifestyles with actions, and demonstrate new ways to reduce carbon emissions.