Since carbon inclusion involves the waste of operation services beyond the production process of enterprises and the operation and service of the public consumer, the first problem faced by the promotion of carbon inclusion is the problem of carbon emission reduction accounting methodology, and there is still a lack of standards in this regard. In the past, the traditional carbon emission reduction methodology was mainly based on the project level, and carbon inclusive was more applied to the city level and lifestyle level, reducing emissions through various lifestyle behaviors to achieve the goal of not raising the temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius and contributing to the Paris Agreement, so the emission reduction of our per capita lifestyle can be reduced, so the contribution of carbon inclusive to the entire zero-emission economy is also very large. There are five main components to achieving a zero-carbon society, namely renewable energy, natural ecosystems, buildings, transportation, and circular economy, which are all very relevant to circularity and behavior. Elements that define regeneration include scenarios, behaviors, and data quantification. At present, there are also many methodologies for carbon emission reduction accounting in the scenarios of carbon general meetings, and we at the Youth Cooperation Research Institute also have methodologies for reducing food waste, saving electricity and paper, and eliminating disposable tableware for takeaway, as well as grouping. More social practices are needed to continuously explore more scenarios and then quantify them. At present, because there is no unified methodology for project emission reduction, the standard method of group standard is now used to quantify, according to the standard format, defining the scope, standard terms, determining the application conditions and accounting methods are also the two most important parts.
There will be a lot of conceptual issues involved, carbon inclusion has now become a concept, and there is also the fact that its emission reduction is not the same as project emission reduction, it is more about avoiding emissions. Therefore, when making application conditions, it is necessary to define time periods and scenarios, such as the scenario of saving electricity, to determine the peak or idle state of electricity consumption, and through this behavior change, the user turns off the lighting, refrigeration and other equipment or standby switches, which is the difference between the normal power-on state and the emission reduction. For the data requirements for emission reduction at the end of this behavior, including the user registered with the power management platform of the power grid or the enterprise, determine the data in the accounting unit, and do a baseline survey, the data type should be useful electricity, the length of time of electricity consumption behavior, and the research should be done according to the scope of inclusiveness. This is a different approach from the traditional method of carbon emission reduction, which is based on personal behavior data, and requires a lot of data questionnaire research, such as the mode of electricity consumption, the type of electricity used, and the proportion of electricity that is not turned off, and the amount of electricity used. Because the baselines of different regions, different units, and different institutions are different, it is necessary to have a clear definition of one's own baseline. The management process should be in line with the carbon accounting methodology process, identify the boundary subjects, the accounting units, and obtain the data, which are all the same. Regarding the accounting entity, for example, the main body of takeaway is the platform, but the main body is responsible for collecting data, but the entire emission reduction behavior is brought by the users registered on this platform, so it involves the verification and reward of carbon credits in the later stage.
Of course, at the project level, it is generally required to use the year as the time scale of the data, and carbon inclusion is a dynamic behavioral activity, and its time scale can be based on the dynamic data of the activity, or it can be adjusted, for example, the school is a semester, or the month is compared. On the basis of these efforts, we determine the emission factors of the carbon inclusive emission reduction scenario, such as the emission reduction per person per takeout order, per person per trip, and combine it with big data to calculate the corresponding quantity multiplied by the emission factor. Our ultimate goal is to be able to turn off 100% of the electricity at will, and ultimately achieve a carbon emission reduction on the consumer side.
Therefore, the application scenarios of carbon inclusion are more applied at the spatial level, such as campuses, communities, parks, commercial institutions, and public utilities, when doing the entire regional emissions, because it is a spatial whole, we have to divide it into some entities, including building entities, as well as products, such as paper, plastics, and activities, such as green travel, meetings, and express delivery. It is possible to calculate both emissions and emission reductions. The Youth Cooperation Institute has also issued action guidelines for zero-carbon campuses and communities, and we have also identified basic emission reduction methods and emission reduction behaviors, which can be calculated according to the methods of the guidelines. Another important point is that we will achieve carbon neutrality again because this is a long-term 10 or even 30-year process, we must do system building, set goals, establish carbon neutrality management mechanism, and then take specific action plans.
Finally, the carbon market inclusive emission reduction market is an innovative way, because all the emissions of products and raw materials have already been generated, so the carbon inclusive market cannot be mixed with the national mandatory emission reduction market and the voluntary emission reduction market, which will cause the problem of double counting. Therefore, the carbon inclusive market is a more voluntary, more market-oriented, and more local independent market, which is more calculated through an incentive mechanism, such as carbon credits, through the behavioral side and the way to avoid emission reduction.
Therefore, carbon inclusion also needs to establish a set of management rules, and we also see that all localities are doing local carbon inclusion mechanisms, such as Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hainan, Guangzhou, and many other provinces and cities. Generally speaking, for example, Shanghai has issued a document to declare for the development of methodology, and if there is already a group standard foundation and a scenario basis, you can directly apply for local standards, and then establish a trading emission reduction mechanism, which is more based on the incentive method based on rewards. This kind of interactive interface is now generally used in the form of small programs, which can be used by every user, unit or community, and the front-end is the basis for data traceability and quantification. These data, one is based on questionnaire research, one is personal voluntary input, and one is automatically collected by the platform, and the authenticity of these data is based on the principle of inclusiveness, the requirements are not as strict as although the emission reduction market, it is based on a public or cognitive level, and the additionality is not so strict.
Of course, in order to make a real carbon inclusive market in the future, we still need to trace the data to the source, such as recycling, because when it comes to the specific product recycling of plastic recycling, it does involve the income and the requirements of the EU market, and there must be a strict set of data when it comes to the carbon emission information and recycling information of the product. However, for this kind of encouragement for the public to adopt a green lifestyle and a low-carbon lifestyle, at present, everyone is encouraged to participate through incentives and rewards, as long as they upload a photo or check in.
Through this digital way, traffic mode and public publicity method, it is combined with business, public welfare, and government policy guidance, and individual rewards are given to participants in various ways at different levels, and finally we reduce the demand for resources from the end, form a higher value circular economy model, and achieve carbon neutrality.