The two sessions look at the "law"|digital, green and clever transformation, and the "intelligent" and rational progress of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality

This year's government work report pointed out that in the past year, our ecological environment has improved steadily, and in the new year, we must actively and steadily promote carbon peak and carbon neutrality, improve the ability of carbon emission statistical accounting and verification, establish a carbon footprint management system, and solidly carry out the "Ten Actions for Carbon Peaking". The recently released Interim Regulations on the Administration of Carbon Emissions Trading (hereinafter referred to as the "Interim Regulations") will also come into force on May 1, 2024.

As a front-line ecological and environmental law enforcer, the author would like to take the first carbon emission administrative penalty case in Shanghai as a starting point, and suggest from the perspective of environmental supervision in practice and the legislative and judicial needs of specific law application.

In June 2022, law enforcement officers from the Shanghai Environmental Law Enforcement Corps conducted an in-depth investigation of a power plant, a key emitting enterprise in the power generation industry under the national carbon trading system, based on clues handed over by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment. After investigation and verification, the power plant systematically increased the total moisture data of coal when calculating greenhouse gas emissions, thereby affecting the calculation of carbon emissions, and declared annual greenhouse gas emissions, which constituted a "false report of greenhouse gas emissions", which violated the provisions of Article 25, paragraph 2 of the Administrative Measures for Carbon Emission Trading (Trial) (2021) (hereinafter referred to as the "Administrative Measures (Trial)"). In accordance with Article 39 of the Administrative Measures (for Trial Implementation), the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Ecology and Environment made an administrative decision to order the illegal acts to be corrected within a time limit and impose a fine of 18,800 yuan. This case reflects the strong practice and active exploration of the administrative law enforcement guarantee path to achieve the dual carbon goal by the front-line personnel of the ecological environment in Shanghai before the issuance of the Interim Regulations, under the guidance of the Administrative Measures (Trial) and relevant institutional mechanisms.

The ultimate foothold of the implementation of the dual carbon goals is administrative law enforcement management, which needs to be guided by system design. Returning to the legislation and system design itself, can we go further? For example, can we reform the allowance settlement system of carbon emission allowances into a system of automatic deductions?

Article 11 of the Interim Regulations stipulates that "key emitting enterprises shall...... Article 12 stipulates that "the competent department of ecology and environment of the provincial-level people's government shall verify the annual emission report submitted by the key emitting enterprises and confirm their actual greenhouse gas emissions." The verification work shall be completed within the prescribed time limit, and the verification results shall be fed back to the key emitting enterprises within 7 working days from the date of completion of the verification。 Article 14 stipulates that "key emitting enterprises shall, in accordance with the results of the verification of the annual emission report by the competent department of ecology and environment of the provincial-level people's government, pay their carbon emission quotas in full within the time limit prescribed by the competent department of ecology and environment under the State Council".

So can it be understood that if a key emitting enterprise allocates 50,000 tons of greenhouse gas emission quota in the initial allocation stage of carbon allowances, and the enterprise has emitted 30,000 tons of greenhouse gases that year, in the current national carbon trading registration system and trading system have been networked and the gas emissions in the emission report have also been verified, the enterprise has to go to the special registration authority to clear the 30,000 tons of emission allowances, is it a bit cumbersome? In addition, from the perspective of law enforcement officials and law enforcement agencies, if the punishment is based on this, there will also be concerns that the enterprise will raise a statement and defense that it will increase the burden on the enterprise and fail to consider the optimization of the business environment in the follow-up process of the case.

With the advancement of science and technology, the gas emissions of enterprises can be measured (measured) by monitoring instruments. In this regard, the author suggests that at the moment of digital transformation, streamlining administration and decentralization, we should do a good job in the construction of supporting facilities, build a big data platform, and on the basis of the convenient policies of "one network management" such as the application of the application, the quota settlement system of carbon emission rights should be transformed into a system automatic deduction system, so as to reduce the burden on enterprises and optimize the business environment in the front position of environmental administrative supervision, which is also in line with the provisions of Article 5, paragraph 4 of the Interim Regulations, "carbon emission trading should be gradually incorporated into a unified public resource trading platform system." ”。

Author's Affiliation: Law Enforcement Brigade of Minhang District Ecological Environment Bureau, Shanghai