China will strive to achieve the first expansion of the carbon emission trading market as soon as possible, and strengthen the system construction and data management of carbon emissions management to be included in the industry.
At the regular policy briefing held by the National Information Office on the 26th, Zhao Yingmin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that the construction of a unified national carbon market is a major institutional innovation to promote the green and low-carbon development of China's economy and society. While promoting the emission reduction of greenhouse gases by enterprises and the high-quality development of the green and low-carbon transformation of the industry, the national carbon market also anchors the benchmark for the whole society to carry out carbon pricing activities such as climate investment and financing, carbon asset management, etc., and promotes the low-carbon and green production and lifestyle.
The Interim Regulations on the Administration of Carbon Emission Trading (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations") were promulgated on February 4 and will come into force on May 1, 2024. Carbon emission trading is an important policy tool to control and reduce greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide through market mechanisms, and to help actively and steadily promote carbon peak and carbon neutrality.
According to Zhao Yingmin, the national carbon emission trading market officially opened in July 2021 and has successfully completed two compliance cycles, the first one is 2019-2020, and the second is 2021 and 2022. At present, the expected construction goals have been achieved. At present, the national carbon emission trading market covers about 5.1 billion tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions, and 2,257 key emitting enterprises are included, making it the world's largest carbon market covering greenhouse gas emissions.
On February 26, Zhao Yingmin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, introduced the situation at the regular policy briefing of the State Council Information Office.
According to the data, by the end of 2023, the cumulative trading volume of the national carbon emission trading market reached 4400 million tons, with a turnover of about 24.9 billion yuan. The second compliance cycle saw a 19% increase in volume and an 89% increase in turnover over the first one. The overall carbon price showed a stable trend. From 48 yuan per ton at the time of start-up to about 80 yuan per ton, about 66%. The enthusiasm of enterprises participating in transactions in the second compliance cycle has increased significantly, accounting for 82% of the total number of enterprises participating in the transaction, which is nearly 50% higher than that of the first compliance cycle.
China's carbon market as a whole is still a new thing, the national carbon market was listed and traded in July 2021, and it has been less than 3 years now, and there are still many places to explore and innovate in the entire construction and operation. At the regular policy briefing, Zhang Yaobo, director of the Fourth Bureau of Legislation of the Ministry of Justice, said that when the "Regulations" were formulated, the focus was on building a framework system for carbon emission trading management, providing basic compliance for the operation of the carbon market, ensuring that it is standardized and orderly, and at the same time maintaining the necessary flexibility in the design of relevant systems, leaving enough space for future exploration and development.
It has been noted that in practice, there is already an emerging problem of falsification of emission data, so legislation must highlight the problem-oriented approach and respond effectively in a timely manner. Zhang Yaobo said that the authenticity of carbon emission data is the key and premise of whether the policy function of the carbon market can be played and whether the market can operate healthily, and the "Regulations" will effectively prevent and punish carbon emission data fraud as an important content, from strengthening the main responsibility of key emitting units, strengthening the supervision of technical service institutions, strengthening supervision and inspection, and increasing penalties in four aspects, and strive to improve the institutional mechanism.
In response to reporters' questions about the next step of carbon market expansion, Zhao Yingmin introduced that China's carbon emissions are mainly concentrated in power generation, steel, building materials, nonferrous metals, petrochemicals, chemicals, papermaking, aviation and other key industries, these eight industries account for about 75% of our country's carbon dioxide emissions, and the high-emission industries will be included in the national carbon emission trading market as soon as possible, which can make the carbon reduction cost of the whole society be optimized and minimized, so as to help achieve China's "double carbon" goal.
Zhao Yingmin revealed that in addition to the power industry, although the other seven industries are not included in the quota control, the verification of their carbon emission accounting reports has been carried out. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment is actively promoting the first expansion of China's carbon emission trading market as soon as possible.
We will adhere to the principle of mature one and include one, fully learn from and use the existing carbon emission management system and experience, and strengthen the system construction and data management of carbon emission management to be included in the industry, so that the key emitting units in these industries can meet the management requirements of the carbon market after being included in the carbon market. Zhao Yingmin said.