The Qiantang River, the 410-kilometer "mother river" in Zhejiang, traces its source westward and is located in Quzhou, on the edge of the four provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi and Anhui.
This beautiful landscape city, named after the mountain and prospered by the water, has a forest coverage rate of 71.5% in the city, and the quality of the outbound water is above Class II, which has attracted leading beverage companies such as Wahaha and Want Want Group to build here successively. factory.
Although it has innate advantages, more than ten years ago, the environmental quality of Quzhou also turned around due to the large-scale development of "five small" enterprises such as small chemical industry and small paper making.
Shutting down or relocating chemical parks, renovating small lime kilns and farms, Quzhou has spent more than ten years running out of a green and low-carbon development model.
At the 2021 Chinese Entrepreneurs Boao Forum Roundtable held at the end of last year, Quzhou brought a new problem-solving formula for the regional low-carbon transformation and development under the background of "dual carbon" - carbon account.
"The carbon account is a data governance tool that defines the low-carbon contribution, carbon reduction responsibilities and carbon emission rights boundaries of various social entities." The person in charge of the relevant department of the Quzhou Development and Reform Commission said, where is the carbon emission, how to reduce it, and to what extent?
Carbon accounts open a window to address these issues.
In addition, the carbon account not only includes the government and enterprises, but also reduces carbon emissions from the personal consumption side.
Quzhou, with a population of only more than 2.5 million, has built more than 2.3 million residential carbon accounts since the pilot carbon account for more than a year.
The Beijing News Shell Finance reporter learned from the Agricultural Bank of China Quzhou Branch that the public through online transfer, payment, payment and other green payment behaviors, as well as green travel data such as bus rides and public bicycle rentals, will be classified for carbon credit assignment calculations.
This area is not the only one to carry out exploration. With the proposal of my country's "dual carbon" goal, China CITIC Bank, China Construction Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, Rizhao Bank, etc. have tested or launched "carbon accounts" / "carbon inclusive platforms" in the past six months. , to record and quantify individual energy-saving and emission-reduction behaviors.
However, the industry generally said that the carbon account has just started, and there are still many problems to be solved, such as how much the carbon account can promote energy conservation and emission reduction, what areas need to be improved in the system, and how to solve the scientific and unified data accounting And whether the user's information security is guaranteed.
■ Bank sample
Carbon accounts become a reference indicator, and enterprises can "loan by points"
How much carbon emissions will my actions generate?
For many companies and individuals, this is probably a "confused account".
The original intention of establishing a carbon account is to settle this account.
According to the introduction of relevant persons from the Quzhou Branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, the public through the online banking of the Agricultural Bank of China and the mobile banking for green payment behaviors such as online transfer, payment, payment, etc., as well as green travel data such as taking public buses and renting public bicycles, will be classified for carbon credit assignment calculation.
In addition to residential carbon accounts, Quzhou also has corporate carbon accounts.
According to a manager of a company in Quzhou, there are more than 100 data collectors installed in the factory's electricity meters and pipelines. Once the energy consumption exceeds expectations, the carbon account system will issue an early warning.
Carbon accounts are not for demonstration, their vitality lies in application.
Quzhou links carbon accounts with financial services. Through carbon account evaluation, social entities will obtain a "carbon credit report" as a reference for the bank's loan service policy.
Jiangshan Hydrogen Peroxide Co., Ltd. is an old-fashioned star enterprise in Quzhou City. The carbon dioxide generated by the hydrogen peroxide production process undoubtedly hinders the company's carbon reduction and emission reduction.
Under the "dual carbon" goal, enterprises are eager to face transformation problems, but the funding gap is huge.
According to the person in charge of the relevant departments of ABC Quzhou Branch, relying on the carbon account system of Quzhou City, ABC Quzhou Branch has built a carbon account application mechanism covering the whole process before, during, and after the loan, and issued the first “carbon account” for industrial enterprises in the country. Special loans for reference indicators.
After getting the loan, Jiangshan Hydrogen Peroxide Co., Ltd. effectively increased the amount of carbon dioxide recovered from the original 15,000 tons per year to more than 30,000 tons.
Personal carbon account loans have also exceeded 1 billion yuan.
Quzhou People's Bank officials predict that the city's carbon account-related loans are expected to reach 20 billion yuan this year, of which personal carbon account loans can reach 2 billion yuan.
In addition, since the establishment of the personal carbon account, a cumulative reduction of 9,510 tons of personal carbon emissions has been achieved.
Online payment of utility bills can earn 20,000 carbon points for peanut oil
"(I) have recently become accustomed to opening the Rizhao Bank mobile banking app from time to time, punching in the card and collecting points in the carbon inclusive platform column above, and now I have more than 2,000 points." Ms. Peng, who has worked in Rizhao for three or four years, at the beginning of this year Since then, he has become a "green talent".
It is understood that in January this year, Rizhao Bank officially launched the "Carbon Inclusive Platform" to promote low-carbon life and green development with green finance, digital finance and scenario finance.
Shell Finance reporters saw on the Rizhao Bank App that in the "Carbon Inclusive Platform" column, there are special areas such as green life, green payment, and green government affairs.
Among them, the green living area includes online water and electricity payment, heating payment, etc.; the green payment area includes mobile phone number payment, ETC payment, online payment signing, etc.; green government affairs includes online queuing reservations, electronic social security card services, etc.
The reporter noticed that there are clear points for the corresponding business, including 10,000 carbon points for completing the ETC contract; 5,000 carbon points for completing online small and micro loans; 500 carbon points for completing a mobile bank water and electricity payment; Make an appointment online and get 100 carbon credits.
On the bank's "Carbon Inclusive Platform", the current application of carbon credits is mainly related to the exchange of rights and interests, and the rules are similar to those of credit card credits.
For example, 24,950 carbon points can be exchanged for 1.8L peanut oil, 54,500 carbon points can be exchanged for an eye protection lamp, and 64,500 carbon points can be exchanged for a mini portable energy-saving heater.
According to the person in charge of the relevant department of Rizhao Bank, as of the end of February, nearly 100 million personal carbon credits have been issued, and it is expected that 300,000 personal carbon accounts will be opened by the end of the year, reducing carbon emissions by 100,000 tons per year.
In the next step, Rizhao Bank will continue to enrich scenarios such as green travel, green public welfare, and green finance, improve the personal carbon credit and carbon rights system, and contribute more financial power to carbon emission reduction.
In March, the internal test of thousands of people has been launched, and scenes such as second-hand recycling will be launched
The beta version of China CITIC Bank's carbon account has been openly recruiting 1,000 users to participate in the experience since March 10 this year.
The bank's carbon account also has similarities and differences with Agricultural Bank of China Quzhou Branch and Rizhao Bank in terms of associated scenarios and application of credits.
The relevant person in charge of China CITIC Bank said that at present, the internal beta version has been launched for online payment of living expenses, applying for electronic credit cards, opening electronic bills and other low-carbon behaviors such as carbon emission reduction accounting.
The upcoming public version will also include more green and low-carbon life scenarios such as green travel and second-hand recycling.
An internal test user said that after accumulating energy, China CITIC Bank's carbon account can not only participate in public welfare undertakings, but also choose to exchange exclusive gifts, which is more practical and motivating.
According to the “CITIC Carbon Account” accounting forecast, each year, China CITIC Bank credit card users can reduce carbon emissions by more than 2 million tons through low-carbon behaviors in online financial services.
China CITIC Bank also explained the data accounting standards that the market cares about.
It is reported that the "CITIC Carbon Account" carbon reduction accounting adopts the carbon emission reduction methodology recognized by a third-party authoritative organization, and has been reviewed and recognized by experts organized by the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange to ensure the scientificity and authority of the accounting. For energy saving and emission reduction scenarios such as consumption and green life, users can record and query personal carbon emission reduction data in real time.
At the same time, the "CITIC Carbon Account" provides low-carbon science popularization and low-carbon knowledge quizzes, and will also provide carbon emission calculators for daily life scenarios, allowing users to gain an in-depth understanding of low-carbon behaviors in daily life.
■ dispel doubts
How do individual carbon accounts contribute to the "dual carbon" goal?
Studies have shown that excessive carbon emissions will lead to environmental problems such as global warming and the greenhouse effect, and reducing carbon emissions has long-term and far-reaching significance.
my country has started energy conservation and emission reduction during the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period. Garbage sorting and CD-ROM activities are widely publicized low-carbon practices, and my country's energy conservation and emission reduction have also achieved certain results.
In September 2020, my country for the first time proposed to achieve the goal of carbon peaking in 2030 and carbon neutrality in 2060, and mentioned the "dual carbon" goal in many major work conferences and external Q&A processes since then.
According to public information, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places have issued documents or proposed to explore the opening of personal carbon accounts at relevant work conferences.
Zhao Yue, assistant researcher at Renmin University of China Chongyang, believes that the essence of personal carbon accounts is an inclusive mechanism. It is not to use personal carbon accounts to achieve direct emission reduction, but to provide rewards through personal green behaviors, and this is also the effect of personal carbon accounts. The biggest advantage is to reduce carbon emissions from the consumer side, instead of directly controlling carbon emissions on the production side like carbon trading.
Pan Helin, co-director of the Digital Economy and Financial Innovation Research Center of Zhejiang University International Business School, said in an interview with Shell Finance reporter that the significance of the personal carbon account at this stage is that the personal carbon account system guides consumers to be more inclined in the process of consumption decision-making For green consumption, make consumption patterns more in line with the goal of carbon neutrality and carbon peaking.
"The long-term significance is that my country's carbon rights trading is currently being piloted. At this stage, individuals cannot participate in carbon trading, and personal behavior cannot be converted into carbon rights and carbon sinks, and cannot be valued, but individual users will eventually participate. Therefore, the current personal carbon account plays a nurturing role, and guides individuals to participate in the value accumulation of carbon rights by linking the carbon emission reduction behavior with the value of the carbon account balance, so as to enter the carbon rights trading field for individuals in the future. Lay the cognitive foundation." Pan Helin said.
At the same time as the announcement of the launch of the beta version of the carbon account, the China CITIC Bank Credit Card Center released the "2022 Low-Carbon Life Green Book" (hereinafter referred to as "Green Book"), which is aimed at nearly 200 first-tier to fourth-tier cities, 22-year-olds -2,500 people in their 60s conduct market research.
The survey results show that up to 95% of the respondents believe that a low-carbon life should be actively embraced.
Garbage sorting, paper reduction and plastic reduction, and CD-ROM activities are the top three low-carbon behaviors in terms of perception. Practices that are closely related to life can make the public experience the reality brought by low-carbon life.
In addition, up to 86% of the respondents will take the initiative to share their low-carbon actions, and 76% expect to be an influencer, which can lead more people to join.
Respondents are most concerned about the platform's original intention to develop low-carbon, rather than using low-carbon platforms as a means of realizing commercial interests (such as activities carried out in pursuit of the platform's daily activity, using consumer coupons to guide platform consumption, etc.).
Helping public welfare, clearly recording low-carbon behaviors, and participating with friends are the three most anticipated functions of the low-carbon platform by respondents.
Shell Finance reporters noticed that low-carbon practices such as green consumption and environmental protection actions are practiced by 96% and 85% of respondents, respectively. Carbon reduction and emission reduction, and promotion of ecological civilization construction) were only 62%.
Insufficient public awareness, incomplete business functions, and unbalanced regional development are the main reasons for the low penetration rate of digital services.
In contrast, first-tier cities and respondents aged 31-39 are the most prominent and active in their digital service practices.
Digital services are a new blue ocean for practicing low-carbon life.
However, low-carbon practices have not yet been unified.
The survey results show that 76% of respondents perceive low-carbon actions, while only 32% practice them. Low-carbon requirements have not yet become a social norm, economic strength limitations, and lack of positive feedback are all examples of green and low-carbon living practices. The main reason for the low performance.
Is there a unified standard for carbon credit measurement?
Suppose an electronic payment is given to 200 carbon credits, and a bus ride is given to 300 carbon credits. What is the standard for calculating credits, and how to ensure the authenticity of data monitoring?
These are the bottlenecks currently facing the carbon account in the eyes of the industry.
Wu Qi, executive director of the Wuxi Digital Economy Research Institute, said that after the national carbon market was launched in July last year, the first batch was only included in the power generation industry.
At present, we are still focusing on the carbon peak stage, and more importantly, guiding the power industry to develop new energy and energy-intensive industries to save energy and reduce carbon.
In the long run, promoting green and low-carbon lifestyles in the future is also a key direction, and it will be a rigid demand at that time.
It is not ruled out that within two or three years, the bank's personal carbon account will speed up the pilot, and then gradually open it.
Pan and Lin suggested how to "from good to good" personal carbon accounts, and comprehensively capture users' carbon emission behavior.
Although personal carbon accounts motivate individuals to reduce carbon emissions, the calculation process of carbon emission factors is very complicated. For example, credit cards of multiple banks may be used in personal consumption, and consumption data between banks is not connected.
The calculation of carbon emission factor is limited by the completeness of user carbon behavior data collection, and the carbon account balance with incomplete data may encourage speculative consumption of consumers, and does not actually play a role in guiding emission reduction.
In addition, the calculation of individual carbon account balances requires a clearer scale.
At present, the personal carbon accounts of each bank are based on their own carbon emission reduction factor calculation system. The centralized management model may make carbon balance calculation and carbon balance assignment more subjective. This subjective calculation model lacks objective Standard regulation, users can not form a stable carbon emission reduction behavior realization expectations, so as to discourage users in the implementation of carbon emission reduction behavior enthusiasm.
Therefore, if the personal carbon account is to be truly effective, it is necessary to establish a standardized credit reporting system for the personal carbon account as a whole, and comprehensively evaluate the personal carbon emission reduction behavior through a unified model for calculating the carbon emission reduction factor.
How to protect personal information security?
Some respondents believe that they are willing to practice low-carbon emission reduction, but they are worried that others will be able to deduce their travel information from carbon credits, such as taking a bus or subway one day, or walking 10,000 steps one day, "I hope this credit Only I can see it for myself."
In this regard, Pan Helin believes that there are potential security problems in personal information protection. If you need to monitor the user's carbon trajectory, you must collect the user's travel information, and this travel information does contain a lot of sensitive personal privacy, so the current financial institutions The general direction of protecting user carbon account information and consumption information is the same.
First of all, to inform users that they need to collect information, they need to inform users of carbon account information usage rules in the agreement; secondly, banks need to establish a complete set of information collection, extraction, and analysis processes to manage data and information in a rigorous process. In order to retrieve this information, it is necessary to grant the necessary permissions and strengthen the technical investment in information protection. Banks can also consider third-party information and data security management, such as storing information in third-party companies, and third-party qualified companies. Users’ carbon trajectories are collected for data collection; finally, banks cannot collect users’ complete carbon trajectory information, so they can also implement comprehensive carbon credit investigations for users through government-sponsored carbon credit companies.
How to benefit banks' green finance?
When it comes to green financial products, green credit, green bonds, and innovative carbon emission mortgage loans have frequently appeared in recent years.
"Green finance was mainly about the industry and the public sector. The bank's products for the C-end (individual) are not perfect, and the customer stickiness is not high. By exchanging carbon credits and other methods, it can increase customer activity." Wu Qi Tell the Shell Finance reporter that in the future, banks also need to strengthen cooperation with external enterprises to form a greater effect.
Zhou Maohua, an analyst at the Financial Market Department of China Everbright Bank, also told the Shell Finance reporter that for banks, through the construction of personal carbon accounts, “binding” more personal business needs with the bank will improve customer stickiness and customer acquisition capabilities. , banking business development and other aspects have positive significance.
From the perspective of the low-carbon transformation of the social economy and the improvement of the competitiveness of banking business through the construction of personal carbon accounts, it is expected that more banks will join the construction of personal carbon accounts in the future.
He further said that people's economic activities are extensive, and there is a wide range of scenarios for banks to expand, such as second-hand recycling, transportation, consumption and other residential life scenarios; accelerate the realization of carbon account "assets", the construction of trading market mechanisms and related incentive mechanisms, etc. Participate actively.
Cheng Weimiao, Shell Finance reporter of the Beijing News