Beijing's carbon trading market pilot has shown initial results in 7 years
Our reporter Yang Xuecong
During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, the carbon intensity of Beijing dropped by more than 23%, and the carbon intensity was the lowest in the provinces of the country... The carbon emission trading pilot program was launched for 7 years. The "strict" regional carbon emission rights trading market, using market mechanisms to promote energy conservation and emission reduction has achieved initial results.
Clear rules to tighten the system "fence"
The "Kyoto Protocol" adopted in December 1997 took the market mechanism as a new path to solve the problem of greenhouse gas emission reduction represented by carbon dioxide, that is, the carbon dioxide emission rights are regarded as a commodity, thus forming the trading of carbon dioxide emission rights, referred to as carbon. transaction.
In 2011, seven places including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen launched pilot projects for local carbon emission trading.
Since the opening of the Beijing carbon market on November 28, 2013, there have been more than 800 key carbon emission units under management, covering 8 industries including electricity, heating, and aviation.
As of the end of 2020, the Beijing Carbon Market Carbon Allowance (BEA), China Certified Voluntary Emission Reduction (CCER) and forestry carbon sinks have sold nearly 68 million tons of products, with a turnover exceeding 1.94 billion yuan.
"The average annual transaction price of Beijing's carbon emission allowances has always been between 50 yuan and 70 yuan per ton, and the overall trend is rising year by year." As the construction and operator of the Beijing carbon market, Wang Huijun, executive vice president of Beijing Green Exchange Co., Ltd., said in his tone Pride, "Compared with other domestic regional carbon markets, the carbon price in Beijing's carbon market is higher and the trend is less fluctuating. This is conducive to encouraging companies to focus on energy conservation and emission reduction and form a stable emission reduction expectation."
A stable carbon market is inseparable from complete institutional guarantees.
Wang Huijun said that a complete system construction provides a basic guarantee for the standardized and orderly development of various pilot projects and the healthy development of the carbon market.
The formation of higher carbon prices also benefited from the guarantee and support of related systems.
Since the launch of the Beijing Carbon Market, a “1+1+N” regulatory and policy system has been established.
In addition to the "Beijing Carbon Emission Trading Management Measures (for Trial Implementation)", the relevant competent authorities have also formulated and introduced quota verification methods, verification agency management methods, over-the-counter trading implementation rules, open market operations management methods, and carbon emission rights offset management Measures and other supporting policies and technical supporting documents.
Wang Huijun told reporters: “Beijing is the first and the only market that has issued open market operation and management measures, that is, the Beijing carbon market implements transaction price warnings. The online public transaction price is lower than 20 yuan or higher than 150 yuan per ton, which will trigger Open market operating procedures such as carbon emission allowance repurchase or auction.” In addition, the clear penalties and strict enforcement of the Beijing carbon market are also important reasons.
A sound management organization and a sound and stable market system have enabled the Beijing carbon market to accumulate abundant resources of key emission reduction units and investment institutions, and have played an active role in enhancing market liquidity, improving transaction matching rate, and stimulating market vitality. .
Step by step to benefit standardized enterprises
The construction of the carbon market cannot be accomplished overnight.
Due to the lack of understanding of the market by individual key emission units, when 2014 ushered in the first compliance year, the active compliance rate of the Beijing carbon market was 97.1%.
In order to enable key emission units and technical support institutions to truly understand the role of the carbon market, the competent authorities and exchanges have tried every means to improve the understanding of the carbon market by various participating entities.
At the same time, Beijing took the lead in carrying out law enforcement work in pilot provinces and cities across the country.
Strict and transparent law enforcement provides a guarantee for the stable operation of the Beijing carbon market.
In the following six compliance years, the compliance rate of the Beijing carbon market has been 100%.
As of the end of 2020, a total of 455 million tons of carbon market quotas across the country have been traded, with a total turnover of 10.55 billion yuan.
In comparison, although the quota scale in Beijing is limited, due to active market participants and high average transaction prices, transaction volume and transaction volume are still at the forefront of the pilot carbon market.
So, how much effect does the carbon market play in reducing emissions in Beijing?
"Many companies are actively adopting energy-saving and emission-reduction measures, which reflects the positive construction results of Beijing's carbon market from bottom to top." Wang Huijun said that through carbon trading, the annual performance cost of companies can be effectively reduced, and some companies have gained from carbon trading. Additional benefits.
The great change of Datang International Power Generation Co., Ltd. Beijing Gaojing Thermal Power Plant is a typical case.
The Takai Thermal Power Plant, which was built in 1959, was the first large-scale power plant in my country to organize production under centralized control of an expanded unit.
On November 28, 2013, Datang International Beijing Gaojing Thermal Power Plant actively supported the construction of Beijing's carbon market and became the first participant in the transfer of the BEA agreement.
On July 23, 2014, Unit 3 of the Gaojing Thermal Power Plant was officially decommissioned from the power grid. After 55 years of operation, all coal-fired units of the plant were shut down, thereby reducing coal burning by 2.3 million tons per year.
On April 23, 2018, with the assistance of Datang Carbon Assets Co., Ltd., Beijing Gaojing Thermal Power Plant completed the transformation of the permanent magnet motor of the closed water pump motor of Unit 3, saving 208,700 kWh of electricity annually.
At present, the installed capacity of the plant is 2.3 times that of the previous one, and the heating area has increased by more than 7 million square meters, but the plant area is only half of the original.
In order to maximize the efficiency of the unit, the Gaojing Thermal Power Plant adopted Asia's first 9FB gas turbine with a large single unit capacity and high efficiency. Its performance, parameters, energy saving and emission reduction functions, and optimized operation level are all world-class.
The data shows that in 2014 and 2015, the total carbon emissions of key emission units in Beijing's carbon market decreased by 4.5% and 5.96% respectively year-on-year.
The Beijing carbon market has played an important role in supporting the city's "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period in the cumulative reduction of 30% of carbon emissions per 10,000 yuan of GDP.
During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, Beijing's carbon intensity dropped by 23% compared with 2015, exceeding the goal of the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" plan, and its carbon intensity was the lowest in the provinces of the country.
Constantly innovate and be a market pioneer
With the continuous improvement of the Beijing carbon market, the list of key emission units has also quietly changed, and the carbon market products have become more abundant.
In 2016, units with annual carbon dioxide emissions of more than 5,000 tons (inclusive) in the Beijing administrative area were listed as key emission units. Among them, urban rail transit operation units and public electric vehicle passenger transport units have become "new mobile source key emissions Unit", here is Beijing Jinggang Metro Co., Ltd.
Beijing-Hong Kong Metro is the first Sino-foreign joint venture in the field of urban rail transit in China.
Train air conditioning control system transformation, station air conditioning system energy saving, station LED lighting energy saving, escalator energy saving, tunnel lighting mode optimization... The Beijing-Hong Kong Metro can reduce electricity consumption by hundreds of thousands of kilowatt hours each year and reduce emissions by more than tens of thousands of tons.
By saving resources, improving energy efficiency, and reducing emissions, the carbon emissions per unit of operations and ancillary facilities in 2017 were reduced by 0.73% and 6.42% respectively compared with 2016.
With the improvement of people’s awareness, the Beijing Carbon Market is actively exploring the innovation of related green financial products, and has gradually built and improved a multi-level carbon emission trading market with the characteristics of the capital region.
At present, under the premise of ensuring that risks are controllable, the Beijing carbon market has formed a market structure in which multiple products coexist based on carbon emission allowances and China’s certified voluntary emission reductions, including repurchase financing, replacement, etc. A variety of transaction structures have also matured and been widely accepted by the market, fully satisfying the diverse needs of various transaction participants.
In addition, in order to facilitate the performance of key emission units, forestry carbon sink projects in Beijing and inter-regional cooperation areas will be approved by experts organized by the Beijing Municipal Climate Change Competent Authority and announced before they are officially registered and issued with CCER, and a certain percentage of them will be obtained. The emission reductions are pre-issued and used for market transactions and contract performance.
Forestry carbon sequestration is an important measure adopted by the Beijing carbon market to support forestation and other measures to improve the capacity of forestry to sequester carbon and increase sinks.
Since the start of forestry carbon sink trading in 2014, 5 forestry carbon sink projects have been listed and traded on the Beijing Carbon Market, all of which have received extensive social attention and good economic benefits.
As of December 31, 2020, the Beijing Carbon Market’s forestry carbon transaction has been consolidated for 93 transactions, with a total of 370,000 tons, with a value of 10.32 million yuan; the online average price in 2020 is 43.77 yuan/ton, which is much higher than that of renewable energy CCERs. The transaction price has achieved a win-win situation for ecological, social and economic value.
During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Beijing put forward the goal of "carbon emissions should be stabilized and reduced, and carbon neutrality should take solid steps."
The stable operation of the carbon trading market will undoubtedly play a very important role in promoting.