China News Service, February 26th: The State Council Information Office held a regular briefing on State Council policies on February 26th to introduce the "Interim Regulations on Carbon Emissions Trading Management".
Zhao Yingmin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, revealed at the meeting that the national carbon emissions trading market covers annual carbon dioxide emissions of approximately 5.1 billion tons.
Zhao Yingmin introduced that in accordance with the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the national carbon emissions trading market has chosen the power generation industry as a breakthrough point and will officially open in July 2021. It has successfully completed two compliance cycles. The first compliance cycle is From 2019 to 2020, the second performance cycle is 2021 and 2022.
At present, the expected construction goals have been achieved.
At present, the national carbon emissions trading market covers approximately 5.1 billion tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions and includes 2,257 key emission units, making it the largest carbon market covering greenhouse gas emissions in the world.
In the two and a half years since the construction of the national carbon emissions trading market, with the strong support and efforts of all parties, it has achieved results in four main aspects:
First, a relatively complete institutional framework system has been established.
The State Council issued and implemented the "Interim Regulations on the Management of Carbon Emissions Trading", and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued management measures and three management rules for carbon emission rights registration, trading, and settlement, as well as technical specifications and supervision and management requirements for verification of carbon emission accounting reports in the power generation industry. Clear requirements and specifications have been put forward for key links and the entire process involving carbon emissions trading, such as registration, emissions accounting, reporting, verification, quota allocation, quota trading, and quota settlement, and have initially formed a set of administrative regulations, departmental rules, and standards. The legal system and working mechanism of the national carbon emissions trading market consists of regulations and business rules for registration agencies and trading agencies.
Second, an infrastructure support system of “one network, two institutions, and three platforms” has been established.
The "National Carbon Market Information Network" has been built to centrally release authoritative information on the national carbon market.
Establish a national carbon emission rights registration agency and trading agency to conduct refined management of quota registration, issuance, settlement, trading and other related activities.
The three major infrastructures of the national carbon emissions rights registration system, trading system, and management platform have been built and stably operated, achieving online full-service management links, centralized data throughout the process, and scientific comprehensive decision-making, and the infrastructure of the national carbon emissions rights trading market. The support system is basically formed.
Third, carbon emission accounting and management capabilities have been significantly improved.
Establish a normalized long-term supervision mechanism for the quality of carbon emission data, implement a "national-provincial-municipal" three-level joint review, and use information technology such as big data and blockchain to provide intelligent early warning to eliminate data problems in the "budding" stage.
Innovate and establish a dynamic supervision mechanism for contract performance risks to urge enterprises to complete payment in full and on time.
Enterprises participating in the carbon market have established internal control systems for carbon emission management and incorporated carbon asset management into daily production and operation activities. The management and accounting capabilities of relevant enterprises have been significantly improved.
Fourth, the market performance is stable and improving.
This is reflected in several aspects: First, compared with the first fulfillment cycle, market activity has improved significantly in the second fulfillment cycle.
As of the end of last year, the cumulative transaction volume of the national carbon emissions trading market reached 440 million tons, with a transaction volume of approximately 24.9 billion yuan.
The transaction volume of the second fulfillment cycle increased by 19% compared with the first fulfillment cycle, and the transaction value increased by 89% compared with the first fulfillment cycle.
Second, carbon prices have shown a steady upward trend overall.
It rose from 48 yuan per ton at the start to about 80 yuan per ton, an increase of about 66%.
The enthusiasm of enterprises to participate in transactions has increased significantly in the second compliance cycle, with 82% of the companies participating in transactions, an increase of nearly 50% compared with the first compliance cycle.
Zhao Yingmin said that the healthy operation of the national carbon emissions trading market has played an important role in achieving the dual carbon goals and promoting the green and low-carbon development of the whole society.
There are mainly the following aspects:
First, the company has implemented its carbon reduction responsibilities.
Using the carbon market carbon emission quota allocation, the carbon emission reduction target requirements are directly decomposed to enterprises, making enterprises the main body of carbon reduction, consolidating corporate responsibility, and establishing a low-carbon awareness that "carbon emission has costs and carbon reduction has benefits" , achieving effective control of carbon emissions from the largest carbon-emitting key industry (the power industry).
Second, it reduces the carbon reduction costs of the industry and society as a whole.
Through carbon emission quota trading, the carbon market provides more flexible options for companies to fulfill their carbon reduction responsibilities, helping the industry achieve low-cost carbon reduction.
According to estimates, during these two compliance cycles, the overall emission reduction costs of the national power industry have been reduced by approximately 35 billion yuan.
As the scope of industries covered by the carbon emissions trading market continues to expand, the optimal allocation of carbon emissions resources across different industries across the country will ultimately minimize the country's total emission reduction costs.
Third, the carbon price formed by the carbon market anchors the benchmark price reference for carbon pricing activities such as climate investment and financing and carbon asset management, promotes the innovation of climate investment and financing tools, and provides investment and financing for low-carbon, zero-carbon, and negative-carbon technologies. provided basic support and financial support.
China's carbon pricing mechanism with the carbon market as its core is gradually taking shape, promoting the low-carbon production and lifestyle of the entire society, thereby promoting green, low-carbon and high-quality development.
Fourth, we have explored and established a statistical accounting system for carbon emissions in key industries that is consistent with my country's reality, and have trained a large number of professionals and related institutions in carbon emission reduction and management, laying a solid foundation for promoting the realization of the dual carbon goals.