The "Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Accelerating the Construction of a Unified National Large Market" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") was recently released. The "Opinions" require the cultivation and development of a unified national ecological environment market; the construction of a unified national carbon emission rights and water rights trading market; and the promotion of market-oriented trading of pollutant discharge rights and energy use rights。 At the same time, the "Opinions" make it clear that the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, the Chengdu-Chongqing Region Twin Cities Economic Circle, the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River City Cluster and other regions are encouraged to give priority to the construction of regional market integration and establish and improve regional cooperation mechanisms under the premise of maintaining a unified national market.
Carbon emission trading and pollutant discharge right trading are an important part of the construction of an ecological environment market
Carbon emission trading and pollutant discharge right trading are both environmental rights and interests trading, which is an important part of the construction of the ecological environment market, and the mainland has carried out long-term exploration and construction work. In 2011, Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangdong, Hubei and Shenzhen carried out pilot carbon emission trading projects. In 2021, with the power industry as a breakthrough, the national carbon emission trading market was launched, which played an important role in promoting carbon emission reduction in the power industry. Also in 2011, the mainland began the pilot work of trading pollutant discharge rights, and a total of 28 provinces carried out pilot projects for the paid use and trading of pollutant discharge rights in the province or in some parts of the province. All localities have actively explored innovative practices and continuously stimulated the vitality of the trading market, which has played an important role in exploring the market-oriented trading mechanism of environmental resources. In general, whether it is carbon emission trading or pollutant emission rights trading, it is currently in a critical period from the pilot and pre-construction stage to the deepening.
To implement the requirements of the "Opinions" and cultivate and develop a unified national ecological environment market, it is necessary to deepen the design of carbon emission rights and pollutant discharge right trading systems, and promote the deep integration of the two in terms of mechanisms, policies and standards. In essence, the two have the same theoretical basis, similar trading framework, similar trading system, consistent regulatory mechanism, and have a deep theoretical basis and practical basis for deep integration. Taking this as a breakthrough, systematically planning and promoting the synergy of environmental rights and interests such as pollutant discharge rights and carbon emission rights in key areas of air pollution prevention and control is of great significance for improving the efficiency of environmental management, improving the efficiency of environmental resource utilization, achieving synergy in pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and promoting the construction of a large national market. The author suggests that the establishment of a regional emission trading mechanism should be gradually promoted from the perspective of achieving continuous improvement of environmental quality, promoting synergies in pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and taking into account practical possibilities.
Greenhouse gases and conventional pollutants have the distinctive characteristics of homology, consistency with emission media and emission reduction measures, and are inseparable from actual management. Therefore, it is possible to consider treating greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide as a special atmospheric emission, carbon emission trading and pollutant emission rights trading are collectively referred to as emission rights trading, and different emissions such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds are used as different trading targets, and on the basis of implementing a comprehensive, integrated, and coordinated management strategy, differentiated system design is carried out according to its own attributes.
Proposal to promote the establishment of a regional emissions trading mechanism
The first is to focus on improving the system design and promote the synergy and efficiency of the marketization of various types of emission rights and interests trading in key areas in stages.
In the near future, it is recommended to expand the geographical scope of conventional pollutant discharge rights trading, and pilot the establishment of pollutant discharge rights trading markets in key areas such as Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. At present, the pollutant discharge right trading system takes the administrative division as the boundary range, and lacks the design of the regional pollutant discharge right trading system based on environmental quality. Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas, the Yangtze River Delta, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and other regions due to their specific geographical characteristics and meteorological conditions, the cross-border transmission of atmospheric pollutants has obvious characteristics, the phenomenon of homogenization of atmospheric environmental quality is becoming increasingly obvious, and it has the basic conditions for using market mechanisms and economic leverage to add stamina to pollution reduction. It is suggested that on the basis of the existing local pollutant discharge right trading pilots, explore the construction of a regional major air pollutant discharge right trading mechanism, realize the unified management of conventional pollutant discharge right indicators of enterprises and institutions at the regional level, and optimize the allocation of environmental resources through the establishment of a regional trading market, deepen pollution reduction with the market-oriented mechanism as a breakthrough, and accelerate the improvement of the overall level of pollution prevention and control in key industries.
In the long run, in the later stage of the pilot trading of conventional pollutant emission rights in key areas, the trading mechanism of greenhouse gas and conventional pollutant emission rights will be deeply integrated. The first step is to establish a coordinated and unified goal-setting methodology. Through quantitative tools, the coordinated emission reduction benefits of regional greenhouse gases and atmospheric pollutants are identified by industry, and the total volume control targets of the two trading systems in key regions are considered as a whole, and the overall "double reduction" target is coordinated with carbon emission reduction, and the "total pool" is regulated from the initial end of the mechanism to achieve the purpose of maximizing the emission reduction benefits. The second step is to further optimize the trading mechanism with the goal of promoting positive synergies and strengthening the decisive role of the market in allocating environmental resources. Including the optimization of the construction of the secondary market, the tendentious design of emission reduction projects with synergistic emission reduction benefits, etc. The third step is to achieve pollution reduction and carbon reduction with the help of green finance. Increase the inclination to strategic emerging projects such as new energy, energy conservation and efficiency, and pilot preferential policies for such projects, including carbon finance, investment and financing of mortgage loans for emission rights, leasing, etc., to promote the optimal allocation efficiency of resources。 The fourth step is to link with the repurchase policy of pollutant discharge rights trading and be managed by a third-party institution, give priority to the repurchase of surplus pollutant discharge rights arising from coordinated emission reduction in the market, and encourage and guide enterprises to carry out coordinated emission reduction measures. In addition, the feasibility of setting up the same subject matter to represent the right to discharge and carbon emissions can be explored, and the technical method and trading mechanism for the initial quota allocation based on the same subject can be initiated in a timely manner.
The second is to integrate and optimize the establishment of a regional emission rights trading management platform, and uniformly allocate and effectively manage regional environmental indicator resources.
Relying on the national registration system and trading system for carbon trading, we will build a management platform for emission trading in key regions。 Taking the reduction of collaborative implementation costs and the improvement of environmental management efficiency as the starting point, from the construction of basic support systems, transaction management platforms and related supervision systems as the starting point, the interconnection and coordination of relevant basic information are realized. For example, it is possible to directly add modules to the national carbon trading registration system to establish a data sharing mechanism for carbon emission quotas and the confirmation of conventional pollutant discharge rights, so as to improve the convenience of policy implementation and the efficiency of daily supervision. In the national carbon trading management agency, build a regional emission trading management platform that can realize the unified networking of provinces, cities and counties at the provincial, municipal and county levels, serve cross-regional emission trading in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas, the Yangtze River Delta region, and provide venues, facilities and services for emission trading, monitoring and assessment, and perform relevant functions。
Author Jiang Chunlai Rao Sheng Unit: Environmental Planning Institute of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment
Source: China Environment News