The operational framework of the national carbon market has been basically established
Sinochem New Network News Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment released the "Report on the First Compliance Cycle of the National Carbon Emission Trading Market" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), which shows that after the construction and operation of the first compliance cycle, the operation framework of the national carbon market has been basically established. In the next step, the coverage of the national carbon market will be gradually expanded to more high-emitting industries to enrich the trading varieties and trading methods.
In the first compliance cycle of the national carbon market, the power generation industry is the first key industry, and the industry benchmark method with intensity control as the basic idea is used to implement quota allocation, which is in line with China's stage goal of achieving carbon peak by 2030. In the first compliance cycle of the national carbon market (the whole year of 2021, a total of 114 trading days), the cumulative trading volume of carbon emission allowances was 179 million tons, with a cumulative turnover of 7.661 billion yuan. The difficulty is that the role of the price discovery mechanism has initially emerged, the awareness and ability level of enterprise emission reduction have been effectively improved, and the quality of carbon emission data has been effectively improved through special supervision and assistance, and the expected construction goals have been achieved.
According to the report, a total of 2,162 key emitting enterprises in the power generation industry were included in the first compliance cycle of the national carbon market, covering about 4.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually, making it the world's largest carbon market in terms of covered emissions. As of December 31, 2021, the overall quota compliance rate of the national carbon market was 99.5%, with a total of 1,833 key emitting enterprises completing the quota settlement on time and in full, and 178 key emitting enterprises partially completing the quota payment. Judging from the completion of the implementation of the contract in various regions, the five provinces and municipalities of Hainan, Guangdong, Shanghai, Hubei and Gansu have all completed the settlement of quotas on time and in full. In the first compliance cycle, a total of 847 key emitting enterprises had a quota gap, with a total shortfall of 188 million tons, and about 32.73 million tons of national certified voluntary emission reductions (CCER) were used for allowance settlement and offsetting.
The report proposes that the national carbon market is an important part of China's implementation of China's national strategy to actively respond to climate change, and it is also an important policy tool to implement China's carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals. Compared with promoting carbon emission reduction through traditional administrative means, the carbon market gives full play to the role of the market in allocating resources through the quota management system, compacts the responsibility for greenhouse gas emission control to enterprises, promotes enterprises to strengthen carbon emission management, and uses market mechanisms to find reasonable carbon prices, provides flexible choices for enterprises to reduce carbon emission reduction, and drives green and low-carbon industrial investment while reducing the cost of emission reduction in the whole society. The long-term and effective way provides an effective way to deal with the relationship between economic development and carbon emission reduction.
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said that after the construction and operation of the first compliance cycle, the national carbon market has become an important window to show China's active response to climate change, contributed China's wisdom to the establishment of carbon markets for the majority of developing countries, and played a positive role in promoting the formation of a global carbon pricing mechanism, which has received widespread attention and recognition from the international community. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment will continue to promote the construction of the national carbon market, adhere to the basic positioning of the national carbon market as a policy tool for controlling greenhouse gas emissions, continue to improve the institutional mechanism, improve the level of supervision, strengthen data quality management, and gradually expand the market coverage to more high-emission industries on the basis of the good operation of the spot market for allowances in the power generation industry. Promote the important role of green and low-carbon technology innovation, and gradually establish an open, transparent, standardized, orderly, and effectively regulated carbon market with international influence.
