Lu Shize, Deputy Director of the Climate Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment: The building materials industry is a key industry to be covered by the national carbon market in the next step

The building materials industry is the key industry to be covered in the next step in the national carbon market. At the 2024 "June 0th Green Building Materials Day" theme event hosted by the China Building Materials Federation, Lu Shize, deputy director of the Department of Climate Change Response of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said: "As an industry with relatively large carbon emissions in my country, relevant enterprises In accordance with relevant requirements of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the verification of accounting reports of carbon emission data has been carried out for many consecutive years, accumulating a relatively rich data base, and is a key industry to be covered in the next step in the national carbon emission trading market.”

In the second half of the year, cement industry companies will carry out monthly deposit and certificate work of carbon emission data

In July 2021, the national carbon emissions trading market started trading. So far, the construction tasks of two compliance cycles have been completed, and a total of 2257 companies in the power generation industry have been included. The annual greenhouse gas emissions have reached more than 5 billion tons. It is the world's largest market with greenhouse gas emissions. So far, the cumulative transaction volume of carbon emission quotas has reached 460 million tons, with a cumulative transaction volume of 26.5 billion yuan.

Lu Shize pointed out that in the past three years, the national carbon emissions trading market has been generally healthy and orderly, with transaction prices rising steadily, which has promoted corporate emission reduction control and accelerated green and low-carbon transformation. China's carbon market is the main form. The pricing mechanism is gradually taking shape.

"In particular, my country's carbon emissions trading market now adopts a method of carbon emission intensity control. There is no absolute total emission amount, which does not affect the overall development of the industry. This is in line with my country's carbon peak and carbon neutrality. The path and rhythm are highly consistent." Lu Shize introduced that from the perspective of carbon prices, it was 48 yuan at the start of 2021. By April this year, the carbon price had exceeded 100 yuan. It currently fluctuates around 100 yuan.

As a key industry to be covered in the next step in the national carbon emissions trading market, the building materials industry has accumulated a relatively rich data base. However, the building materials industry's processes are relatively complex and the delineation of accounting boundaries is relatively complex, which puts forward higher requirements for management capabilities.

At the beginning of 2023, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment entrusted the China Building Materials Federation to take the lead in carrying out special research work on integrating the cement industry into the national carbon emissions trading market, providing strong technical support for expanding industry coverage.

"In April this year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment publicly solicited opinions on the" Guidelines for Enterprise Greenhouse Gas Emission Accounting and Reporting Cement Clinker Production "and" Technical Guidelines for Enterprise Greenhouse Gas Emission Verification Cement Clinker Production ", which will be issued as soon as possible." Lu Shize introduced that in the second half of this year, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will choose an opportunity to organize cement industry enterprises to carry out monthly deposit and certificate work of carbon emission data when conditions are ripe.

Three issues need to be paid attention to for the building materials industry to better participate in carbon emissions trading

In order to promote the building materials industry to better participate in carbon emissions trading in the future, Lu Shize put forward three suggestions.

First, we must accelerate the promotion of green and low-carbon transformation. Judging from the global development trend, green is the general trend of development, and carbon reduction is the world trend. In order to better play the policy role of promoting carbon reduction, the national carbon emissions trading market quotas will also be gradually tightened. According to the national "double carbon" Target needs, the national carbon emissions trading market will also implement total control in the next step, implement paid distribution of carbon emission quotas, and the proportion of paid distribution will gradually expand.

In the future, the carbon emission management level of each company will play an extremely important role in the development of the company. Therefore, it is recommended that the building materials industry start early and prepare early, actively promote the green and low-carbon development of industry enterprises, improve production processes, develop low-carbon technologies, and reduce the emission levels of enterprises.

The second is to familiarize yourself with market rules as soon as possible. In January this year, the State Council reviewed and approved the "Interim Regulations on the Administration of Carbon Emissions Trading"(hereinafter referred to as the Regulations). This is my country's first regulation in the field of addressing climate change, clarifying the corresponding rights and obligations for each company included in the market.

It is particularly important to emphasize that for enterprises, there are two major obligations that must be strictly fulfilled. The first is to clear the performance obligations. According to the regulations, enterprises must fulfill the corresponding quota payment obligations based on their annual carbon emissions; the other obligation is the requirement of data quality management. Enterprises must be responsible for the data they fill in and ensure the authenticity of the data. For enterprises that fail to pay their quotas in full and on time and enterprises that falsely report, conceal, or engage in fraud on data quality, a fine of 5 times to 10 times the corresponding amount of the quota will be imposed in accordance with the regulations. Based on the current carbon price of 100 yuan per ton, the cost of falsifying corporate data is very high.

Therefore, it is hoped that enterprises in the building materials industry will become familiar with the relevant technical requirements and rules of the national carbon emissions trading market as soon as possible, clarify the responsibilities and obligations of enterprises in terms of carbon emission accounting, monthly certificate deposit, and payment of performance, and begin to formulate enterprise performance strategies. Actively participate in market transactions and reasonably control enterprise performance costs.

The third is to strengthen enterprise capacity building. It is recommended that enterprises form special personnel and technical teams to be responsible for carbon emission management related work and improve the basic capabilities of enterprises. It is also recommended that the China Building Materials Federation strengthen training for relevant enterprises in the building materials industry. Carbon emission data quality management is a highly technical and policy-oriented task. It is the foundation for the establishment of the carbon market and requires great attention from enterprises and federations. Enterprises must strengthen their own sense of main responsibility, effectively strengthen the construction of internal carbon emission data quality management systems, ensure that various carbon emission data quality control measures are implemented, detailed, and implemented at the enterprise level and key facility level, and resolutely put an end to data fraud.