A side event on "Shanghai's Practice of Promoting Sustainable Urban Development through Carbon Market" was held

The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP28) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) opened in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, on November 30. The Shanghai Municipality, as a representative of the municipality directly under the central government, participated in the conference and held a side event with the theme of "Shanghai's Practice of Promoting Sustainable Urban Development through Carbon Market" in the China Corner on December 6. The event was co-hosted by the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment and the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange, and more than 100 Chinese and foreign guests gathered together to discuss the carbon market and green finance to promote the sustainable development of the city, convey the concept of green and low-carbon, and paint a "beautiful Shanghai".

Mette Quinn, Deputy Director-General of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Climate Action, mentioned in her speech that since the launch of the EU carbon market in 2005 and 2022, the EU's GDP has increased by 23.8%, carbon dioxide emissions have decreased by 37%, and by 2030, it will reduce by 55% from 1990 levels and reach carbon neutrality by 2050. In the future, the EU carbon market will further expand its industry coverage to include water transport, buildings and road transport, and all allowances will be issued in the form of auctions, and the auction proceeds will be set up to set up a climate fund to support low-carbon innovation. At the same time, Mette Quinn fully affirmed the achievements of the Shanghai carbon market, including controlling carbon dioxide emissions, promoting innovation and promoting economic growth, and that China and the EU should continue to strengthen cooperation and learn from experience in the field of carbon market in the future.

In the keynote speech, Xu Huaqing, director of the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, focused on the four major characteristics of the national carbon market, including the gradual consolidation of the responsibility of participating enterprises to control emissions, the reduction of the overall emission reduction cost of the industry, the continuous strengthening of carbon emission data quality supervision, and the initial formation of a social awareness of "emissions have costs, emission reductions have benefits". Shanghai is one of the first cities in China to explore the use of market-oriented mechanisms to promote sustainable urban development, and it is also the only pilot area in China to achieve 100% compliance for 100% for ten consecutive years. The regional carbon market is an important supplement to the national carbon market, and in the future, China will gradually form a multi-level carbon market system to make positive contributions to the realization of the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality and the global response to climate change.

Tang Jiafu, Party Secretary of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment, pointed out that Shanghai adheres to the concept of "a people's city built by the people, and a people's city for the people", focuses on stimulating the spontaneity and initiative of enterprises and citizens to participate in the response to climate change, and carries out systematic and innovative exploration in the application of carbon market and carbon inclusiveness. The carbon market focuses on using market mechanisms to promote the low-carbon transformation of enterprises, while the carbon inclusive mechanism mainly guides small and medium-sized enterprises and citizens to practice green and low-carbon production and lifestyles, which complement each other and jointly contribute to Shanghai's green and low-carbon development.

Lu Xuedu, former chief expert on climate change at the Asian Development Bank, pointed out that climate finance is a core element in solving climate change problems, and shared the practices of multilateral development banks in climate finance, providing experience for Shanghai to carry out climate investment and financing pilots. Shanghai should make full use of the strategic advantages of building an international financial center, formulate a standard system for climate investment and financing, develop climate investment and financing products with strong applicability, guide social capital to invest in climate investment and financing projects, improve laws, regulations and supporting policies to promote the development of climate finance, and ensure that climate investment and financing serve the green and low-carbon transformation and development of enterprises. At the same time, it is necessary to actively connect with the international financial market, guide the flow of international funds to green and low-carbon fields, and gradually build Shanghai into a global climate finance center.

Niu Ren, Vice President of Shanghai Exchange Group, pointed out that the Shanghai carbon market was the first to release China's first carbon emission trading management measures, the first to establish a complete corporate carbon emission accounting and verification management system, and the first to include aviation companies and the first in the world to include water transport enterprises. From trading, financing, support and other aspects, we have continued to implement more than 10 kinds of China's first carbon financial product innovations, such as carbon funds, carbon trusts, carbon pledges, carbon forwards, carbon insurance, carbon indices and ETF indexes, and actively explored and promoted the pilot climate investment and financing in Pudong New Area from the establishment of a standard system, the construction of platforms, project libraries and capital banks, and effectively promoted the green transformation of Shanghai's real economic development. In the future, Shanghai will continue to deepen the carbon market, continue to promote carbon finance innovation, enhance the influence of the climate investment and financing pilot project in Pudong New Area, and contribute to the sustainable development of the world's megacities.

Finally, on the topic of "Shanghai's Practice of Using Carbon Market to Promote Sustainable Urban Development", Chai Qimin, Director of the Strategic Planning Research Department of the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, and Pedro Martins, Assistant Vice President of Carbon Markets and Private Sector Decarbonization of the Environmental Defense Fund Barata, Jiang Changmin, President of Shanghai Academy of Environmental Sciences, Wang Zhiyin, Deputy Manager of Green and Low-Carbon Office, Health, Safety and Environmental Management Department, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, and Andrea Bassett, Chief Climate Change Advisor of Adelaide, Australia, held a roundtable discussion. From the perspective of their respective professional fields, international and domestic experts conducted in-depth discussions on the operation mechanism of climate investment and financing, urban response to climate change and sustainable low-carbon development, carbon emission data quality, low-carbon transformation of real enterprises and carbon asset management, etc., and jointly made suggestions and suggestions for the sustainable development of Shanghai. Liu Jie, General Manager of Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange, moderated the roundtable discussion.

The side event also produced a special interview and publicity video of "Talking about the Shanghai Carbon Market", which was broadcast on overseas TV stations (China-Arab Satellite TV) and YouTube channels (China Content Center and Wave Media) on December 4 and 5 for prime-time promotion, and will continue to be broadcast on Pan-African TV and Southern TV on December 9-10. This overseas communication focuses on the Middle East, as well as audiences in Latin America, Africa, some North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and other regions, widely disseminating the "Shanghai example" of promoting sustainable urban development to the world and contributing the "Shanghai story" to global climate governance.