Since the National Carbon Emissions Trading Market (hereinafter referred to as the National Carbon Market) was officially opened in July 2021, the national carbon market has been in operation for three years.
As of July 16, 2024, the cumulative transaction volume of national carbon market quotas was 470 million tons, with a cumulative transaction volume of nearly 27 billion yuan;
The carbon price has risen from 48 yuan per ton when the carbon market was launched to around 90 - 100 yuan per ton today;
In the first two compliance cycles, power companies included in the national carbon market reduced the overall emission reduction cost of the power industry by approximately 35 billion yuan through carbon trading.
The operation is smooth and orderly, and the role of the carbon price discovery mechanism is gradually emerging.
Over the past three years, during the operation of the national carbon market, the market has operated smoothly and orderly, transaction prices have risen steadily, and the role of the carbon price discovery mechanism has gradually emerged.
It is understood that during the first performance cycle, the national carbon market included a total of 2162 key emission units in the power generation industry, covering approximately 4.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually; during the second performance cycle, a total of 2257 key emission units in the power generation industry were included, covering an annual amount of 5.1 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Judging from the scale of tradable carbon dioxide emissions, China's carbon market is the largest carbon market in the world and plays an important role in promoting national greenhouse gas emission reduction and green and low-carbon transformation.
Public data shows that since the launch of online trading in the national carbon market to July 16, 2024, a cumulative transaction of carbon emission quotas has been 470 million tons, with a cumulative transaction volume of nearly 27 billion yuan. As trading volume and transaction volume grow steadily, carbon prices are also rising steadily.
In July 2021, the carbon price when the carbon market was launched was 48 yuan/ton; after two years of development, by July 2023, the highest price for listing agreements in the national carbon market reached 65 yuan/ton. Since then, the carbon market price has been rising all the way; on April 24 this year, the closing price of the national carbon market was 100.59 yuan/ton, breaking through the 100-yuan mark for the first time, doubling the opening price of 48 yuan/ton on the first day of trading.
"Through three years of development, it can be seen that the role of the national carbon market price discovery mechanism has begun to appear. Enterprises can discover price anchors in the range of carbon price fluctuations and have a basis for judgment when making relevant decisions." Zhang Jingjie, deputy director of the Planning and Development Department of China Electricity Council, told this reporter.
Industry experts said that as my country deepens its understanding of climate change and the "double carbon" goal, the increase in carbon market transaction prices is the general trend, and the improvement and optimization of carbon market-related policies will significantly enhance carbon trading in the third compliance cycle. The vitality of the market.
Our reporter learned that in January this year, the National Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Trading Market (CCER) was launched. The national carbon market has introduced a CCER offset mechanism, linking emission control and non-emission control enterprises, expanding the influence of the national carbon market, helping to mobilize the enthusiasm of emission reduction enterprises to develop CCER projects and increase market liquidity.
Enter the countrycarbon marketFor the third performance cycle, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued the National Year 2023 and 2024carbon emissionsIn the "Total Quota and Allocation Plan for the Power Generation Industry (Draft for Comments)"(hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), a number of measures have also provided support for further activating the carbon market.
Zhang Jingjie gave an example that compared with previous years, the "Plan" proposed quota carry-over rules, and by adding relevant regulations on quota carry-over, it determined the principle that the maximum allowable quota carry-over amount is linked to the net quota sold by enterprises. The higher the net sales volume of an enterprise, the greater its maximum carry-over volume, which will help encourage enterprises with surplus quotas to actively sell quotas and increase the vitality of market transactions.
The basic framework of the carbon market in the power industry has been established, and the level of carbon asset management has been significantly improved.
In the process of participating in the national carbon market transactions, the basic framework of the national carbon market (power generation industry) was initially established, and the carbon asset management level of power companies has also been greatly improved. Not only has a carbon emission management system been established, but carbon asset management has been strengthened. Work, actively carried out the research and development and application of low-carbon technologies, and the ability level of the personnel team has also been improved.
According to Zhang Jingjie, by participating in carbon market transactions, power companies have emerged some typical cases in which data management promotes the construction of carbon trading decision-making systems in terms of carbon asset management.
For example, taking coal quality parameters as the main line, power companies have formed a relational library between coal quality and carbon emission intensity, including coal price factors, stacking rules, blending methods, and the relationship between coal quality parameters before and after combustion and carbon emissions; At the same time, comprehensively consider the carbon market price trends under different market scenarios and trading strategies of market entities, the surplus and deficit of carbon emission quotas for power plants, etc., and with the goal of reducing comprehensive costs, formulate carbon trading strategies in terms of transaction performance, intra-regional allocation, quota holding and trading.
Another example is that by building a cost-benefit evaluation model and comprehensively considering multiple cost-benefit factors to help enterprises accurately calculate production and operation costs and benefits, power companies can achieve real-time evaluation of production and operation costs; by developing a carbon trading auxiliary decision-making platform, the power plant is optimized with the ultimate goal of optimizing comprehensive economy, providing technical support for carbon trading, carbon performance, and control decisions in all aspects of production and operation, and realizing information-based support for efficient and scientific decision-making systems...
These classic cases of power generation companies also provide experience for other industries that are about to be included in the carbon market. Some industry insiders said that as other key emission industries are gradually included in the national carbon market, it is foreseeable that carbon asset management will become an effective starting point for key emission companies, including power generation, to maximize benefits while meeting carbon constraints.
But at present, my country is in the process of building a new power system with new energy as the main body. A large number of new energy sources are connected to the power grid, making thermal power units face higher requirements for ensuring supply and peak shaving. At the same time, my country's thermal power units have gone through multiple rounds of "big power generation units and small power generation units"(big power generation units, shutting down small power generation units), energy-saving technological transformation and ultra-low emission transformation. The level of energy conservation and consumption reduction has become the world's advanced, and there is room for further carbon reduction. Very limited. As peak shaving operation of coal-fired power units becomes the norm, coupled with factors such as increased coal consumption caused by aging equipment, coal consumption for coal-fired power supply will increase in the future. There is a strong correlation between coal consumption and carbon emission intensity indicators, so there will be less and less room for decline in carbon emission intensity.
How to further strengthen the carbon management level of the power industry and promote sustained low-cost emission reductions in the power industry, especially the thermal power industry, has become a must-answer question facing the power industry.
In this regard, Zhang Jingjie said that in the next step, the power industry will actively participate in national carbon market transactions in accordance with the country's overall deployment, and carry out trading activities in accordance with the "Interim Regulations on the Management of Carbon Emissions Rights" in accordance with the laws and regulations to ensure timely performance; deepen relevant supporting mechanisms Research, study quota allocation plans that adapt to the requirements of new power systems under the "double carbon" goal, and promote the carbon market mechanism to play an active role in low-cost emission reduction in the industry; Continuously strengthen the quality management of carbon emission data, revise the industry standard for continuous monitoring of carbon dioxide emissions (CEMS) from thermal power plant flue gas, and improve the quality of carbon emission accounting and monitoring data; strengthen research on the collaborative mechanism between the carbon market and the power market to provide support for building a unified national market; Continue to promote technological innovation and improve power generation efficiency and emission reduction levels; At the same time, strengthen the construction of carbon trading capabilities, evaluate the professional ability level of carbon emission managers, and promote enterprises to make better use of market mechanisms to achieve emission reductions.
Promote energy structure adjustment and reduce industry emission reduction costs
As the only entity in the national carbon market at present, power companies have achieved remarkable results in carbon reduction in the thermal power industry by actively fulfilling their duties and participating in carbon trading.
In the first performance cycle of the national carbon market, the performance completion rate of power companies was 99.5%; in the second performance cycle of the national carbon market, the performance completion rate exceeded 99%. Data from China Electricity Council shows that from 2018 to 2023, carbon dioxide emissions per unit of power generation in the power industry will be reduced by 8.8%, and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of thermal power generation will be reduced by 2.4%.
"After three years of operation and development, the role of the national carbon market in promoting enterprises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and accelerate green and low-carbon transformation has begun to appear. Effectively promoted the adjustment of energy structure and prompted thermal power units to further improve power generation efficiency." Zhang Jingjie said.
"China's Power Industry Annual Development Report 2024" shows that in recent years, coal-fired power companies have greatly increased their awareness of emission reduction, and the scale of "three reforms linkage" of coal-fired power has continued to increase. The national standard coal consumption for power supply of thermal power plants of 6000 kilowatts and above is 301.6 g/kWh; the national power grid line loss rate is 4.54%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.3 percentage points.
It is worth noting that as a policy tool to control greenhouse gas emissions, the essence of the carbon market is to achieve low-cost carbon reduction for the whole society. The carbon market mechanism allows enterprises to strengthen the control of actual carbon emissions through controlling the total amount of carbon emission quotas as much as possible. Enterprises undertaking emission reduction tasks can complete their emission reduction tasks through currency exchange (carbon emission trading), thereby achieving the goal of reducing the cost of enterprises.
In Zhang Jingjie's view, in the future, the national carbon market will play a greater role in better guiding the whole society to reduce carbon at low costs.
In March this year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment had publicly solicited opinions from the public on corporate greenhouse gas emission accounting reports and verification guidelines in the aluminum smelting industry and cement industry, marking the imminent expansion of the carbon market.
"Expanding the industry coverage and number of market trading entities of the carbon market will help give full play to the resource allocation role and price discovery function of the carbon market and achieve the carbon market goal of low-cost emission reduction for the whole society; at the same time, it will promote more industries and enterprises Accelerate low-carbon transformation, reduce carbon emissions, and reduce production costs." Zhang Jingjie said.
In April this year, Zhao Yingmin, Vice Minister of Ecology and Environment, pointed out at the regular State Council policy briefing held by the State Council Information Office that it is estimated that in the first two compliance cycles of the carbon market, the overall emission reduction cost of the national power industry has been reduced by about 35 billion yuan.
Zhao Yingmin pointed out that as the carbon emissions trading market continues to expand, the optimal allocation of carbon emission resources among different industries across the country will ultimately minimize the overall national emission reduction costs.