Reporter Guo Yangchen Zhang Jiazhen reported from Shanghai
Since 2020, when the mainland put forward the goal of "2030 carbon peak, 2060 carbon neutrality" (hereinafter referred to as "double carbon"), "double carbon" has been written into the "Government Work Report" for two consecutive years. The 2022 Government Work Report points out that the energy intensity target is assessed in the "14th Five-Year Plan" and retains appropriate flexibility, and the new renewable energy and raw material energy consumption are not included in the total energy consumption control。
On April 22, as a large-scale international conference that attracted much attention, the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022 was successfully concluded. Topics related to "double carbon" and sustainable development, such as "Achieving Carbon Neutrality: Enterprises in Action", "Achieving Carbon Neutrality: Government in Action", "Establishing the Supply and Demand Relationship of Green Hydrogen Energy", "Energy Integration Development, Building a Green World Together" and "Building a Sustainable Development ESG", have attracted much attention.
The reporter of China Business Daily learned in the interview that as the third largest source of carbon emissions after industry and construction, carbon emission reduction in the transportation sector has a long way to go, and the automotive industry has a heavier task. At present, the use of automobiles is still the most important source of carbon emissions, in addition to vigorously promoting new energy vehicles, major car companies are also trying to explore the possibility of emission reduction and even "zero emissions" from the fields of fuel and batteries. On the manufacturing side, multi-car companies have also introduced carbon neutrality timelines for factories.
In addition, the establishment of carbon trading mechanisms is also a key topic of concern for many experts and industry insiders. Huang Zhen, vice chairman of the Central Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that it is necessary to fully understand the supporting and leading role of "double carbon" in the high-quality development of the mainland, and at the same time fully understand the challenges faced. "It is recommended to accelerate the construction of the energy and carbon market system and vigorously promote the construction of a national electricity, oil, natural gas and carbon dioxide emission trading system."
Paint a carbon-neutral roadmap
The "Sustainable Development of Asia and the World 2022 Annual Report - Green Transition Asia in Action" (hereinafter referred to as the "Sustainable Development Report") released by the Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2022 points out that Asia is an important global growth engine, and carbon emissions have exceeded half of the world's total emissions, which is of great significance to the green recovery and just transformation of the global economy.
It is understood that by the end of 2021, 25 Asian countries have made carbon neutrality commitments. Among Asia's seven largest economies, Japan and South Korea have set time targets for achieving carbon neutrality in 2050, Turkey in 2053, China, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia in 2060, and India in 2070.
The Sustainability Report shows that looking at green governance practices in Asia, countries such as China, South Korea, Nepal, Singapore and Thailand have established "high-level leading groups" or committees to oversee the formulation and implementation of national net zero emissions strategies.
In some countries, such as Singapore and Japan, collaboration between lead ministries and other line ministries, as well as between central and local governments, to achieve net zero emissions is a major feature. The active participation of non-governmental organizations, such as professional consulting and research institutions, also plays an indispensable role in Korea and Japan.
Li Baodong, Secretary-General of the Boao Forum for Asia, said that to achieve carbon neutrality and green transformation in Asian countries and regions, it needs a peaceful and stable international environment, a stable industrial chain supply chain as a guarantee, a climate assistance fund from developed countries to developing countries to accelerate the completion of landing, and more green technical support and capital investment.
Specific to China, Ma Jun, director of the Professional Committee of the China Financial Association and president of the Beijing Institute of Green Finance and Sustainable Development, stressed that a roadmap is needed to achieve carbon neutrality. In terms of facility roadmap, China is leading in developing countries, with plans at the national level, while the framework roadmap for many industries such as energy, transportation, construction, and manufacturing has been relatively clear.
"There should be optimal incentives on the 'roadmap' for achieving carbon neutrality, guiding rational investment, grasping the rhythm, and achieving carbon neutrality goals according to the established schedule." Zhou Xiaochuan, vice chairman of the Boao Forum for Asia, further said that the optimal incentive mechanism for achieving carbon neutrality lies in whether the task goals set by the state can be reasonably decomposed into each locality, department and industry. Each locality and industry can formulate some tasks to meet national goals, and can also set up some mechanisms to decompose tasks.
Grasp the "bull nose" of car carbon reduction
Under the "double carbon" goal, various industries are facing greater pressure to reduce carbon, and the automotive industry, as a "big household" in carbon emissions, has made many explorations and attempts in the field of energy conservation and emission reduction.
The reason is that Qi Haiyan, president of Beijing Yite Sunshine New Energy, said that the largest carbon emissions in the whole life cycle of automobiles lie in the use of links, especially fossil fuel combustion. In the automobile manufacturing process, there is not much gap with other industrial machinery. Therefore, if the automobile industry wants to save energy and reduce emissions, reducing the use of fossil fuels is its "bull nose".
"But now more than 99% of the electricity needed for electric vehicles is obtained through coal burning, so it is not really 'zero emissions'." Zhang Xiang, dean of the New Energy Vehicle Technology Research Institute of Jiangxi New Energy Technology Vocational College, said bluntly that at present, only a few car companies such as Tesla and Weilai Automobile are exploring photovoltaic power generation projects for new energy vehicle charging stations, and such a technical path is enough to make electric vehicles truly achieve the goal of "zero emissions".
In addition to photovoltaics, exploring the development of fuel cells such as hydrogen energy and methanol is also one of the main ways to reduce carbon emissions, and has been applied in the field of commercial vehicles.
In the view of industry insiders, as the protagonist of road transport, heavy trucks have the characteristics of high load, long mileage, high energy consumption and high emissions compared with passenger cars, so how to effectively achieve energy conservation and emission reduction of heavy trucks has become the key to the "double carbon" goal of the automobile industry.
It is understood that Geely Holding Group has been deeply engaged in the research and development and application technology of methanol fuel and methanol vehicles for 17 years, and has successfully developed a variety of methanol power and methanol vehicles.
On March 28, methanol cars and remote methanol heavy trucks developed and produced by Geely Holding Group began the test and demonstration operation in Aalborg, Denmark. This is the first methanol vehicle in operation in Denmark, and it also indicates that methanol will play an important role in promoting carbon neutrality in global transportation.
In terms of passenger cars, the 4th generation of Emexol electric hybrid sedan compared with traditional gasoline vehicles, reducing carbon emissions by 42%, driving 150,000 kilometers can reduce carbon by 10.8 tons, if refueled with green methanol, driving 150,000 kilometers can reduce carbon by 15 tons, the cumulative carbon reduction of 25.8 tons, equivalent to planting 1360 square meters of forest for the earth.
SAIC Motor is the first automobile enterprise in China to implement the three technical routes of "pure electricity, plug-in and fuel cell". Under the empowerment of SAIC Motor, SAIC Hongyan has achieved a full range of pure electric heavy-duty truck layouts, led the hydrogen energy heavy-duty truck industry, and launched multi-energy, all-scenario coverage products.
Among them, the Hongyan Jieshi H6 hydrogen energy heavy truck, which is known as the "first car of hydrogen energy", is the most representative. According to the relevant person in charge of SAIC Hongyan, Hongyan Jieshi H6 hydrogen energy heavy truck adopts a three-electric system composed of hydrogen fuel cell, motor and electronic control, replacing the fuel power system of traditional fuel vehicles, truly achieving zero emissions, zero pollution, and effectively alleviating the problem of exhaust emissions.
"The '10,000- era of hydrogen cars will soon come. It is expected that by around 2025, hydrogen-fueled commercial vehicles can be expected to reach sales of 10,000 units per year. Qi Haiyan pointed out that hydrogen fuel cell vehicles can be called the first of the ultimate solutions for new energy vehicles in the future, and "industrialization development" is the most effective development path to reduce hydrogen battery stacks, system manufacturing costs and improve energy utilization efficiency.
Promote the establishment of carbon trading mechanisms
"At present, carbon emission reduction in the automotive industry is mainly achieved through new energy credits and subsidies. On the one hand, car companies are encouraged to produce more new energy vehicles; on the other hand, the sale of new energy credits is also a large amount of revenue for car companies such as Tesla and Weilai Automobile, especially Tesla's sale of points can account for 15% of its revenue. Zhang Xiang told reporters.
It is understood that the new energy credit and the average fuel consumption integral together constitute the current "double integral". However, the "double points" transaction is affecting the operating performance of car companies, and the cost of purchasing "double points" is eating away at the profits of car companies.
Therefore, it is urgent to establish a carbon trading market mechanism. During the two sessions of the National People's Congress this year, Huang Zhen suggested that the construction of the energy and carbon market system should be accelerated, and the construction of a national electricity, oil, natural gas and carbon dioxide emission trading system should be vigorously promoted.
Huang Zhen believes that through carbon quotas, carbon emission trading and carbon taxes, we will promote the transformation of energy "dual control" to total carbon emissions and intensity "double control", give play to the market mechanism, form an effective incentive and constraint mechanism, make carbon emission costs higher and higher, carbon reduction benefits are getting bigger and bigger, and continuously reduce the green premium.
Coincidentally, Shen Hui, CEO of WM Motor, also called for china to build a carbon trading market in line with its national conditions as soon as possible, gradually establish a carbon trading mechanism, promote the research and development and promotion and application of green and low-carbon technologies, and improve the incentive and constraint policies for pollution reduction and carbon reduction in order to promote the "double carbon" work as soon as possible and implement the carbon peak action plan.
Shen Hui believes that on the one hand, it can effectively drive the full-link carbon reduction action of enterprises in the process of research and development and manufacturing, retail circulation, etc., and promote industrial upgrading. On the other hand, after the subsidy decline and eventual cancellation, the carbon reduction benefits will also reduce the research and development and manufacturing costs of enterprises, indirectly reduce the market price of new energy vehicles, reduce consumer purchase costs, accelerate the popularization of new energy vehicles, and help green travel and green transportation actions.
"The mainland has initially formed a unified national carbon market, and it is necessary to optimize the carbon market incentive mechanism." In Zhou Xiaochuan's view, the direction of optimization should be from the spot to the forward market, and the goal of the incentive mechanism in the medium and long term is mainly to guide investment, and to find new technologies, equipment and processes by guiding capital investment. "It takes a process to achieve the desired efficacy."