This newspaper interviewed Wang Mou of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences: What are the difficulties in promoting international mutual trust in product carbon footprint rules?
15 departments including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Implementation Plan on Establishing a Carbon Footprint Management System"(hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Plan"). The "Implementation Plan" regards promoting international mutual trust in product carbon footprint rules as one of the four important tasks. Why should we promote international mutual trust in product carbon footprint rules? What are the current difficulties? Our reporter interviewed Wang Mou, a researcher at the Institute of Ecological Civilization, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
Wang Mou is a researcher at the Institute of Ecological Civilization, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He is currently the director of the Economics of Sustainable Development at the Institute of Ecological Civilization, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He is an advisory member of the "2030 Sustainable Development Goals Localization Platform" of the United Nations Development Program. He has served as a member of the "Katowice Expert Committee" of the Framework Convention on Climate Change. His research fields include policies and measures to address climate change, regional low-carbon development strategies, Localized implementation of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, etc. Since 2010, he has participated in the Chinese government's negotiating delegation to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, responsible for negotiating the issue of "response measures", which covers "carbon tariffs","fair transformation" and "economic diversification, transformation and development".
China Environment News: 15 departments including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the National Development and Reform Commission jointly issued the "Implementation Plan". The "Implementation Plan" regards promoting international mutual trust in product carbon footprint rules as one of the four important tasks. What is the significance of the Implementation Plan to promote international mutual trust in product carbon footprint rules?
Wang Mou:Climate issues have become the focus of global governance, and the integration of international business rules and climate action rules is deepening day by day. Starting from October 1, 2023, the EU Carbon Border Regulation Mechanism (CBAM) will officially enter the trial operation stage and will be fully implemented in 2026. In addition to the EU CBAM, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, etc. are also preparing to introduce carbon-related trade control bills and policies. In some specific commodities, such as photovoltaic modules and power batteries, exporting companies have already faced the challenge of being required to provide information on the carbon footprint of their products. In order to deal with these situations, we need to have a clear understanding of the carbon emissions background and know the carbon emissions situation of different industries and different products in our country. On this basis, promoting international mutual trust and mutual recognition of carbon footprint measurement rules, reducing the cost of carbon footprint measurement of traded commodities, and improving transaction efficiency can also ensure data security to a certain extent.
China Environment News: Is it difficult to promote international mutual trust in product carbon footprint rules from a methodological perspective?
Wang Mou:From a methodological perspective, it is easy to reach consensus at the technical level at home and abroad, but it may also be influenced by the political level. Regarding the measurement rules of carbon footprint, the IPCC, the International Standards Organization (ISO), industry associations, and scientific research institutions have carried out extensive work and have a certain degree of consensus and common working foundation. In the future, domestic and foreign countries can cooperate to jointly develop and use consensus methodologies for measuring carbon footprint for different products. Judging from past experience, our country's enterprises or consulting institutions learnXiand application skills are also relatively strong, and can learn quicklyXiand applied relevant methodologies. For example, the implementation of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) in China can be quickly learned by Chinese companies and consulting institutions.XiAnd apply the methodology of CDM projects and become the largest provider of CDM projects in the world. Therefore, from a technical perspective, learningXiand developing methodologies should not be too difficult. With the comprehensive advancement of the "Implementation Plan" and the comprehensive advancement of the implementation plan of the carbon footprint management system, more human resources, educational resources, and policy resources will continue to be injected into the development and application of product carbon footprint rules, further enhancing my country's methodological development and application capabilities.
China Environment News: What are the difficulties in promoting international mutual trust in product carbon footprint rules?
Wang Mou:The bigger problem now is data security. For example, in the implementation of CBAM, the European Union not only requires exporters to provide calculation results of carbon emissions of different commodities, but also requires the accuracy of the data to be reviewed by an institution authorized by the European Union. Therefore, exporters are required to provide detailed carbon emission calculations. Basic data and calculation process. If we systematically submit basic economic, energy and other basic data of multiple products and industries to the EU, but my country does not have the industrial development information of the EU and other countries, it will be unfavorable to my country's related industries to participate in global competition, which may in turn affect related industries. Sustainable and healthy development and social security.
The current United Nations practices are worth learning from. Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change need to submit national carbon emission data to the Convention Secretariat. For carbon emission data submitted by countries, a special mechanism has also been established under the Convention to review, but the basic prerequisite is to respect the basic data provided by the government, including energy activity levels, emission factors, etc. The review mechanism is not a review of all calculation data and processes. Calculation, but the main review is whether the methodology is appropriate and whether the default values are appropriate. This review method does not infringe on national datasovereigntyIt is relatively easy for countries to accept.
Improving international mutual recognition of carbon footprint measurement can promote the model of certification by domestic third-party institutions jointly recognized by our country and relevant countries. If an enterprise uses official national data or authoritative data released by relevant industry associations, it can be directly accepted. The verification result issued by the third-party certification authority based on the data provided by the enterprise is the final recognition result, including original, basic data and calculation process. Provide to foreign parties. Domestic third-party certification agencies need to sign confidentiality agreements with production companies to keep all data information and calculation processes confidential.
China Environment News: Why is the EU unwilling to adopt the plan of appointing my country's certification authority to conduct audits?
Wang Mou:The difficulty in promoting this approach lies in establishing the EU's full trust in my country's certification authority.
From the EU's perspective, whether to provide basic data involves transparency issues. Without providing basic data, it is difficult to gain the trust of the EU. Of course, the EU may also want to take this opportunity to systematically and comprehensively understand my country's energy, economy, industry and other data. In the context of the era of big data, the more comprehensive data whoever has, the competitiveness of the country and industry will increase accordingly.
The measurement and management of the carbon footprint of my country's products is still in its infancy, and mutual certification and recognition with other countries still requires a running-in process. We hope to establish a product carbon footprint measurement mechanism based on mutual trust and mutual recognition with the EU and other countries in the future, and promote practical cooperation on climate governance in manufacturing, international trade and other fields.
China Environment News: Are you optimistic about realizing such a cooperation mechanism?
Wang Mou:To achieve such a cooperation mechanism, we currently face major challenges. If it is only cooperation on carbon footprint measurement methodology and technical issues, it is still relatively easy to advance. However, the climate issue is no longer a purely environmental agenda, but is mixed with too many political demands and games, making the technical cooperation mechanism difficult. Regarding the carbon emission measurement and pricing mechanism for internationally traded commodities, countries such as Europe and the United States are currently unilaterally formulating rules and implementing them without showing willingness to cooperate. It is also difficult for relevant international cooperation mechanisms to be carried out based on the lack of willingness of all parties to cooperate.
In general, whether it is carbon footprint management or carbon tariffs, these policies are themselves environmental control measures. If they are used in compliance with international law norms including the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, my country can participate in the formulation and discussion. However, if these measures are unilaterally initiated and used by some countries and have an impact on the economic and trade development of other countries, especially the economic and social development of developing countries, they will not be in line with the common but common principles in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The principle of differentiated responsibilities is unfair to developing countries.
