"Carbon neutrality" leads to heated discussion that a national carbon market will be launched

Under the goal of achieving carbon peak before 2030 and carbon neutral before 2060, how to promote the construction of the national carbon emission rights trading market (referred to as the "national carbon market") in the opening year of the 14th Five-Year Plan and complete the related targets of carbon emission reduction on schedule has become a hot topic in this year's NPC and CPPCC.

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has announced that the construction of a national carbon market has reached the most critical stage to ensure that online trading will start before the end of June this year.The representative members suggested speeding up the construction of the national carbon market system, optimizing the carbon trading mechanism, and promoting the hierarchical development of the carbon financial product system.

China has vowed to peak its carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and strive to be carbon neutral by 2060.The Central Economic Work Conference listed "achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality" as one of the key tasks in 2021, and several ministries and commissions have also made corresponding deployments for carbon reduction work.

As one of the core policy tools to implement China's goal of peaking carbon dioxide emissions and the vision of carbon neutrality, the importance of the national carbon market has become increasingly prominent.

Since 2011, China has launched local carbon trading pilot projects in seven provinces and cities, and has made positive progress.On this basis, on January 1 this year, the first implementation cycle of the national carbon market was officially launched, involving 2,225 key emitters in the power generation industry.On February 1, the Measures for the Administration of Carbon Emission Trading (Trial) came into effect, marking a new stage in the construction and development of the national carbon market.

It is worth noting that the construction of a national carbon market is at an early stage and there are still some shortcomings.

"The main problems are that the carbon trading system is not sound enough, the quota allocation is not scientific and reasonable enough, and the management level is not complete enough." Li Yonglin, a member of the CPPCC National Committee and deputy general manager of Sinopec, said, for example, the "Carbon Emission Trading Management Measures (Trial)" lacks a top law, and there is still no similar environmental protection law, energy conservation law and other national level legal support.

Wu Xiwei, deputy to the National People's Congress, executive director and party secretary of Zhongke Refining and Chemical Company, also said that it has been 10 years since the establishment of the carbon trading pilot program, and it has been 3 years since the establishment of the national carbon market, and some achievements have been seen in the exploration of trading results.However, in general, the promotion of domestic carbon trading market has not reached the expected purpose, and enterprises have not achieved benefits in energy conservation and emission reduction, and their initiative is not high.

In view of the current situation that the national carbon market is still in the early stage of development, a number of representatives and committee members put forward corresponding suggestions in terms of improving the system construction of the carbon market and increasing the financial services of the carbon market.

First, Li suggested speeding up the construction of a national carbon market system.Legislation should take precedence, and higher-level legislation should be adopted to ensure the authority of the carbon market. Regulations on the management of carbon emission trading should be issued as soon as possible to provide legal support for the construction of the carbon market system.At the same time, on the basis of the "Carbon Emission Right Trading Management Measures (Trial)", further formulate and improve the relevant supporting systems and detailed rules to guide enterprises to carry out carbon trading work.Second, we should formulate a carbon quota allocation mechanism in a scientific way.It is suggested to unify the quota allocation method to reflect the advanced nature of carbon emissions and emission reduction of enterprises, adjust carbon price effectively by optimizing the total quota amount, give play to the role of market mechanism, and improve the enthusiasm of enterprises to participate in the carbon market.In addition, it is suggested to gradually expand the coverage of the national carbon market, timely include petrochemical, building materials, steel, non-ferrous metals, aviation and other industries in the carbon market, design more trading varieties and access mechanisms, attract more participants, enhance the activity of the carbon market, and enhance the participation of the whole society in carbon peak and carbon neutral work.

Zhao Haiying, a member of the CPPCC National Committee and deputy general manager of CIC, proposed that trading platforms such as electricity, carbon emission rights and green power certificates should be improved step by step.Before the market system is perfect, it can be considered to unblock the green power channel for direct purchase of enterprises as a breakthrough point.

In terms of financial support, Guo Xinming, a deputy to the National People's Congress and governor of the Nanjing Branch of the People's Bank of China, suggested that financial products and services related to carbon emission rights should be researched and developed under the principle of controlling risks.For example, to promote the hierarchical development of carbon financial product system, first actively promote the carbon quota pledge credit business, and then try to provide carbon credit, carbon risk management and other financial services in the implementation of carbon trading projects;Continue to enrich carbon financial derivatives, pilot carbon forward, carbon swap and other over-the-counter products, and then gradually promote the development of carbon futures, carbon options and other products in the exchange.We will gradually expand the scope of trading entities, support financial institutions to participate in carbon market trading in an orderly manner, and increase the participation of qualified institutional and individual investors in carbon emission trading at an appropriate time.

Song Xin, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and chairman of the China Energy Conservation and Environmental Protection Group Co., said that the system of carbon emissions monitoring, accounting, reporting and verification, on which the carbon trading mechanism relies, is easily disturbed by human factors.It is necessary to make an in-depth summary of the system design and implementation of similar carbon trading mechanisms, find and solve the problems in the mechanism design and implementation in a timely manner, so that the carbon trading mechanism can more effectively guide the industry to participate in the carbon peak and carbon neutral goals.We need to vigorously develop climate investment and financing, strengthen policy coordination, develop standards systems, and conduct comprehensive demonstrations, so as to better support China's response to climate change, and provide impetus for green and low-carbon development of enterprises.