On the 3rd, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment solicited public opinions on the "Guidelines for Accounting and Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions for Enterprises, Cement Clinker Production" (hereinafter referred to as the "Accounting Guidelines") and the "Technical Guidelines for the Verification of Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Enterprises" for Cement Clinker Production (hereinafter referred to as the "Verification Guidelines"), which has become another important signal for the expansion of the national carbon market.
Why were the Accounting Guidelines and Verification Guidelines developed?
It is reported that the "Accounting Guidelines" have simplified the calculation formulas and parameters related to verification and performance, improved the scientific and operability of technical rules, refined the accounting verification rules and the requirements of enterprise self-certification materials, improved the standardization of accounting, and clarified the accounting rules for indirect carbon emissions of non-fossil energy electricity consumption.
In terms of verification, in March 2021, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) issued the Guidelines for the Verification of Corporate Greenhouse Gas Emission Reports (for Trial Implementation), which is applicable to the verification of corporate greenhouse gas emission reports in all industries, and does not involve the production characteristics and specific parameters of cement clinker manufacturers. In order to enhance the standardization and improve the quality of carbon emission verification in the cement clinker production industry, the verification guide provides the carbon emission verification methods and key points of cement clinker production.
The number of key parameters for carbon emission accounting has been reduced from 15 to 4
The key parameters of carbon emission accounting in the cement industry have been reduced from 15 to 4, namely fossil fuel consumption, clinker production, consumption of non-carbonate alternative raw materials, and electricity consumption. This has greatly improved the operability of the accounting work of improving the scientificity and operability of technical rules.
At the same time, the Accounting Guidelines clarify the accounting boundaries. In accordance with the principle of "grasping the big and letting go of the small", the Accounting Guidelines put forward more detailed provisions on the carbon emission accounting method of the clinker production process, while retaining the carbon emission at the enterprise level as a reporting item. It should be noted that enterprise-level carbon emissions are only used as a basis for enterprises to grasp their own emissions, and no verification is carried out. In the enterprise-level carbon emission accounting, captive power plants that are not included in the national carbon emission trading market shall account for and report greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with these guidelines, and captive power plants that have been included in the national carbon emission trading market shall be accounted for in accordance with the guidelines for power generation facilities in the national carbon emission trading market。 Enterprises that produce other non-cement products (e.g., mining) should account for and report their greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with applicable industry accounting and reporting requirements.
In addition, in terms of the application and value of carbon emission factors, the "Accounting Guidelines" make it clear: first, the content of calcium oxide and magnesium oxide in clinker must be measured in the laboratory from the previous regulations to the preferential use of process emission factors (Portland cement clinker is 0.535tCO).2/t clinker), enterprises with measured needs should meet the management requirements stipulated in the "Accounting Guidelines". The second is to clarify the deduction coefficient of five types of non-carbonate alternative raw materials, which is calculated based on the sample data of 1,455 production lines of 1,058 cement companies in 2022. The third is to update the carbon content per unit calorific value of coal combustion and the default value of low-level calorific value. Among them, the carbon content per unit calorific value can only be used as the value specified in the guidelines (0.02618tC/GJ), which is the default value of bituminous coal in the Guidelines for the Preparation of Provincial Greenhouse Gas Inventories (Trial), mainly considering that more than 92% of the heat in the cement industry is provided by bituminous coal and bituminous coal-based blended coal, and the default value of 23.076GJ/t is used for the low-level calorific value, which is the data of the building materials industry in the "China Greenhouse Gas Inventory Research", and enterprises with measured needs should comply with the "Accounting Guidelines" Specified management requirements to ensure that data quality supervision is operational.
It is clear that the indirect emissions of non-fossil energy electricity are zero
According to the Accounting Guidelines, the electricity consumption of cement clinker production deducts the power generation of waste heat power stations, the consumption of non-fossil energy electricity purchased and used through market-based transactions, and the amount of non-fossil energy electricity generated and used by enterprises for self-consumption, and the net purchase and consumption of electricity at the enterprise level deducts the consumption of non-fossil energy electricity purchased and used through market-based transactions.
For the two types of non-fossil energy electricity traded in the market, including the electricity produced by the same enterprise directly to key emission facilities through special lines, and the non-fossil energy electricity that power users have signed market-oriented trading contracts with non-fossil energy power generation enterprises and distributed to key emission facilities through the power grid, the guidelines specify that the indirect emissions shall be calculated as zero。 In order to avoid double counting, the guidelines have developed a new electricity emission factor for accounting for indirect emissions from the national carbon emission trading market (no longer using the previous national grid average emission factor), which is calculated based on the latest grid data and deducts the consumption of non-fossil energy electricity through market-based trading.
The inspection team is not responsible for the authenticity of the company's emission data, but is responsible for the authenticity of the report issued by itself
The Verification Guidelines are only used to guide the verification of clinker production and do not apply to enterprise-level verification. The verification team shall judge the completeness, accuracy and compliance of the information and data in the emission report submitted by the enterprise, but does not stipulate that it is responsible for the authenticity of the emission data of the enterprise. It should be noted that the verification team should be responsible for the authenticity of the verification report issued by it, and should make technical judgments on the reasonableness of the values of key parameters based on professional ability in the verification work.