Since the beginning of this year, the trading volume of green certificates and green electricity in mainland China has risen sharply. According to data recently released by the China Electricity Council, in the first five months of this year, the total consumption of green electricity and green certificates in the country reached 187.1 billion kilowatt hours, of which 148.1 billion kilowatt hours came from green electricity trading, a year-on-year increase of 254%; 39.07 billion kWh came from green certificate trading, a year-on-year increase of 1,839%.
According to the website of the National Energy Administration, in order to effectively improve the efficiency of green certificate issuance and promote the full coverage of green certificate issuance, the national green certificate issuance and trading system has been officially launched on June 30, 2024.
However, recently, the European Commission released draft rules for calculating the carbon footprint of electric vehicle batteries, stipulating that companies cannot reduce the carbon footprint of electricity by purchasing green certificates, and the application scenarios of green certificates remain to be seen. So, what signals have been released behind the rapid growth of green power and green certificate trading in mainland China? What are the thoughts behind the green certificate and green electricity consumption fever? Our reporter interviewed a number of experts and industry insiders.
Green electricity and green certificates have promoted the market-oriented development of new energy
Endogenous power, government thrust, and external pressure promote the growth of green power and green certificate trading
"The green electricity and green certificate markets have strongly promoted the market-oriented development of new energy, excavated the environmental value of new energy through the market, and then realized it through the green power market, providing more support for promoting the development of new energy." Zhang Xian, director of the new energy trading department of the Beijing Electric Power Trading Center, introduced that the mainland's new energy is developing rapidly, the world's largest installed capacity, and in recent years, the new installed capacity is also the world's first, and the growth rate is far beyond expectations, so the consumption of new energy is an important issue.
"The market is the fundamental mechanism for us to solve the problem of new energy consumption and development, among which the green electricity and green certificate trading mechanism is one of the ways to promote the full entry of new energy into the market." Han Fang, deputy director of the Planning and Development Department of the China Electricity Council, also pointed out that through the green electricity and green certificate market, the environmental value of new energy is reflected, and it is also conducive to promoting the participation of new energy in the electric energy market, and the green power and green certificate market also meet the needs of users for low-carbon transformation and green energy use, which is a win-win mechanism for power generation and use.
Recently, the China Electricity Council (hereinafter referred to as the China Electricity Council), the Beijing Electric Power Trading Center, the Guangzhou Electric Power Trading Center, and the National Renewable Energy Information Management Center jointly released the "2023 China Green Power (Green Certificate) Consumption Top 100 Enterprise List" (hereinafter referred to as the "Top 100 Enterprises").
The reporter of this newspaper noted that the TOP100 enterprises cover energy, telecommunications, petrochemical, steel, Internet technology, automobile manufacturing, life services and other industries, fully demonstrating the outstanding contributions made by enterprises in various industries in promoting the green transformation of energy consumption and achieving sustainable development.
According to the green electricity consumption ranking of the top 100 enterprises, it can be seen that some large multinational enterprises consume large amounts of green electricity and green certificates. This also reflects that the mainland has achieved remarkable results in accelerating the green and low-carbon transformation of electricity consumption in the industrial sector.
Taking the Beijing Electric Power Trading Center as an example, since the start of the green certificate trading platform of the Beijing Electric Power Trading Center in the second half of 2022, by May this year, the cumulative trading volume has reached 58.99 million, and in the first five months of this year alone, the trading volume has reached 33.9 million, a year-on-year increase of 30 times; Since the Beijing Electric Power Trading Center launched green power trading in September 2021, by May this year, State Grid green power trading has reached 176.4 billion kWh, and in the first five months of this year, the traded electricity has reached 93.4 billion kWh, a year-on-year increase of 155%.
Li Zhu, director of the marketing department of Beijing Electric Power Trading Center, pointed out that the reason for the rapid growth of green electricity and green certificate trading volume is mainly affected by endogenous power, government thrust and external pressure. The mainland is promoting the "dual carbon" action from the central to the local level, and many large central enterprises, such as the TOP100 enterprises, are actively transforming and choosing to consume green electricity; At the same time, in recent years, relevant government departments have been continuously improving the relevant systems of green electricity and green certificates, improving the application scenarios of green electricity and green certificates, and stimulating the demand for green electricity and green certificates. The external pressure comes from the global transformation, and the mainland's export products can enhance their brand value and global competitiveness to a certain extent by participating in green electricity and green certificate transactions, which is also an important reason to promote the growth of green electricity and green certificate consumption.
Enterprises are actively purchasing green electricity
The biggest demand is to link it to carbon and solve the problem of carbon emissions
According to data from the China Electricity Council, the 254% year-on-year increase in green electricity trading is closely related to "carbon".
"We have been in extensive contact with green power users, and their biggest demand for purchasing green electricity is to link it to carbon and solve the problem of carbon emissions." Zhang Xian told this reporter that the EU's carbon border adjustment mechanism and related bills are all carbon-related trade rules, so enterprises are most concerned about carbon when exporting goods.
Although the mainland has not yet established a national mechanism for offsetting carbon emissions from green electricity, the carbon reduction effect of green power has been clearly recognized both domestically and internationally. From a multi-faceted perspective, the procurement of green electricity is expected to meet the demand of enterprises to solve carbon emissions.
It is understood that compared with green certificates, the international recognition of the emission reduction effect of green electricity is because green electricity trading is a bundle of energy attributes and environmental attributes of clean electricity, visible electricity and invisible green rights and interests are integrated, customers need to spend the normal electricity price plus the additional price of green rights, you can buy green power with the integration of certificate and electricity, and the environmental attributes of green electricity can be realized without any additional operations.
In February this year, the State Council issued the Interim Regulations on the Administration of Carbon Emission Trading, which states that if key emitting entities consume non-fossil energy electricity, their carbon emission quotas and greenhouse gas emissions shall be adjusted accordingly in accordance with relevant national regulations. This year's government work report also emphasizes the need to promote the use of green electricity and international mutual recognition.
In April this year, the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment issued the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Management of Carbon Emission Units and the Pilot Project of Carbon Emission Trading in the City in 2023", which clearly pointed out that the carbon emissions of green electricity purchased and used by key carbon emitting units through market-based means are calculated as zero; In June, the Shanghai Municipal Department of Ecology and Environment issued a notice on adjusting the carbon emission accounting method for green electricity purchased by carbon trading enterprises in Shanghai, which clearly stated that the emission factor of purchased green electricity was adjusted to 0 tCO2/104kWh, which means that the carbon emission of green electricity purchased by recognized enterprises is zero.
In addition, it can also be seen from the "Guidelines for Accounting and Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Enterprises" issued by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in April this year, cement clinker production (draft for comments) and "Guidelines for Accounting and Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Enterprises for the Aluminum Smelting Industry (draft for comments)", that the mainland is actively promoting the specific mechanism of "electricity-carbon" linkage.
According to the notes for the preparation of the two drafts, indirect emissions, including non-fossil electricity used through market transactions, are calculated as zero. If these two drafts are officially released, green electricity can be regarded as zero-carbon.
"This means that companies that control emissions can reduce their own carbon emissions by consuming green electricity, so that they can better meet their obligations." Ai Lin, deputy director of the Energy Information Center of the General Institute of Hydropower and Water Conservancy Planning and Design, said.
The application scenarios of green certificates remain to be seen
More top-level design is needed to solve the problem of "double benefit" of green certificates
According to data from the China Electricity Council, since the beginning of this year, green certificate trading has increased by 1,839% year-on-year. However, at present, the application scenarios of green certificates are still limited. Recently, the European Commission released a draft of the rules for calculating the carbon footprint of electric vehicle batteries, which clearly stipulates that companies cannot reduce the carbon footprint of electricity by purchasing green certificates.
Zhang Xin, chief economist of the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, recently wrote an article in China Environment News titled "Coordinating and Promoting the Construction of a Voluntary Carbon Market and Jointly Cultivating New Green and Low-carbon Momentum", which pointed out that the application scenarios of green certificates still need to be seen.
"The reason for the sharp increase in the trading volume of green certificates is mainly driven by the domestic market." Cui Bolong, a carbon clearing technology (Wuxi) Co., Ltd., told reporters that in order to promote the consumption of renewable energy, relevant domestic departments are implementing green certificates, and many companies want to do carbon neutrality or carbon reduction, and will require their suppliers to buy domestic or international green certificates. Although many enterprises have deployed the use of new energy in production, they will also buy green certificates when they cannot meet customer requirements, and generally domestic suppliers will mainly buy domestic green certificates.
It is reported that the "Notice on Doing a Good Job in the Full Coverage of Renewable Energy Green Power Certificates and Promoting Renewable Energy Electricity Consumption" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice") issued in August last year proposed that all the electricity produced by the national wind power, solar power generation, conventional hydropower, biomass power generation, geothermal power generation, marine power generation, etc., have been registered and carded, and all the electricity produced will be issued green certificates.
"With the advancement of the full coverage of green certificates and green power, if renewable energy CCER projects such as offshore wind power and solar thermal power generation sell their green certificates at the same time as they are signed CCER, some of the emission reduction contributions obtained by the projects will be repeatedly incentivized in the voluntary carbon market and the green certificate green power market, resulting in 'double benefits', which is also reflected in the recognition conditions set by mainstream international green power initiatives such as RE100, an international organization. Among them, thanks to the requirements of technical methods such as additionality, the credit indicators issued by the voluntary emission reduction trading mechanism emphasize more incentives for the additional emission reduction contribution generated by the relative baseline scenario than green certificates and other green certificates, which only reflect the zero-carbon attributes of renewable electricity, so as to ensure that CCER enjoys higher index quality and its application scenarios far exceed the scope of 'Scope 2' represented by indirect emissions applicable to green certificates and other applications. Zhang Xin pointed out in the article.
An industry insider told this reporter that because the domestic green certificate is separated from electricity and certificate, the party who purchased it actually only obtained the right to declare, that is, to claim that it has used green energy, in this case, the possibility of green power being repeatedly developed is higher. For example, if the green certificate of renewable energy such as offshore wind power and solar thermal power that is included in the CCER has been sold before the CCER is signed, that is, its environmental rights have been sold once, and then the CCER is signed, it will lead to the overdevelopment of the LCER.
Although the Notice clearly states that the uniqueness of the certified environmental value should be ensured, it should not be double-counted or sold. However, the corresponding top-level design needs to be further improved.
"It is recommended that the top-level design of the green certificate mechanism be further improved, and relevant policies and regulations should be formulated and promulgated, and the rules for freezing, canceling and repurchasing green certificates for renewable energy projects participating in the CCER mechanism should be clarified." Zhang Xin suggested, "For the owners of such projects who intend to apply for registration of CCER projects, the green certificate authorities can freeze or cancel the project-related green certificates according to the situation, and the projects that have traded green certificates can require them to repurchase and cancel the equivalent amount of green certificates, and disclose them to the public, so as to avoid unnecessary "double benefits" after the corresponding indicators flow into the trading market, and ensure the fairness and seriousness of the market."
Source: China Environment