The "double carbon" hot word at the National Two Sessions
During the two sessions of the National People's Congress this year, the "double carbon" heat continued.
The 2024 Government Work Report proposes to 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 expand the industry coverage of the national carbon market. In the context of the acceleration of the energy transition process, topics related to "dual carbon" have also become hot words of concern to the deputies and committee members.
Hot word 1: green electricity
Since the beginning of the year, China's green electricity marketization process has been significantly accelerated, and green electricity transactions in many places have reported a "red start to the year", and the "promotion of green power use and international mutual recognition" proposed in this year's government work report has once again pushed green electricity into the public eye.
"The global low-carbon transition is accelerating, and green power substitution has become an important means of carbon reduction. Wang Zhiliang, a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and vice chairman of China Shipping Refining & Chemical Daxie Petrochemical, pointed out in the "Proposal on Accelerating the Establishment and Improvement of the Green Power Offset Carbon Emission Mechanism" that China has not yet established a national green electricity carbon emission deduction mechanism. From a domestic point of view, enterprises must pay a green premium for the purchase of green electricity, but they cannot obtain the national certification for corporate carbon emission deductions, which will have a greater impact on the enthusiasm of enterprises to purchase green electricity. From a foreign perspective, the green barriers to international trade continue to rise, and the purchase demand of enterprises for green electricity continues to increase, but the international demand for the uniqueness of the environmental value of green electricity is also getting higher and higher. The problem of double calculation of the environmental value of green electricity will affect the international recognition of green power in China. Therefore, it is necessary to accelerate the establishment and improvement of the green electricity offset carbon emission mechanism.
To this end, he put forward three suggestions: first, to speed up the introduction of green electricity to offset carbon emissions policy, from the perspective of carbon emission statistics to formulate a system for consumers to purchase green electricity to offset carbon emissions, from the perspective of the national and pilot carbon markets to formulate a carbon emission control system for the purchase of green electricity by emission control enterprises. The second is to speed up the release of grid emission factors that exclude the corresponding amount of electricity from green electricity trading, so as to effectively enhance the international recognition of China's green electricity. The third is to further strengthen the overall coordination between ministries and commissions from a higher level, study the establishment of a special joint working group, introduce external authoritative experts in the field, widely solicit opinions and suggestions, and accelerate the resolution of relevant issues involved in the introduction of policies.
Nan Cunhui, member of the Standing Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and chairman of Chint Group, also focused on the market mechanism of green certificates and green electricity. He said that in 2023, the three departments will jointly issue a notice to clearly include renewable energy projects such as distributed photovoltaic into the green certificate issuance system. However, due to the obstacles to the application of green certificates, the imperfect data measurement and statistical system, and the low enthusiasm of household PV in participating in green certificate and green power trading, it has not been able to play its greatest role.
He suggested that the top-level design of inter-provincial and inter-regional power trading should be strengthened, a unified market system including inter-provincial and inter-regional power markets should be established, and the mechanism for renewable energy power generation to participate in inter-provincial and inter-regional market transactions should be improved. In addition, he also put forward suggestions on further optimizing the issuance and trading mechanism of green certificates, accelerating the improvement of the monitoring and measurement system for the issuance of green certificates, improving the green power trading mechanism of distributed power stations, and accelerating the mutual recognition of electricity and carbon markets.
Liu Hanyuan, deputy to the National People's Congress, vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, and chairman of the board of directors of Tongwei Group, believes that there is a problem of multiple calculations of emission reduction benefits in China's green power trading mechanism. The emission reduction value of green power has not been accurately reflected, which is not conducive to the development of China's green power and green certificate market, and also brings challenges to export-oriented enterprises to cope with the EU's "carbon tariff". To this end, he suggested speeding up the improvement of the green power trading mechanism to avoid the problem of multiple environmental rights and interests of the same project at the same time, eliminating the problem of "double counting" of green power environmental attributes, and enhancing the international recognition of China's green certificates.
Hot word two: clean energy
To achieve the "dual carbon" goal, clean energy is the key. The government work report proposes to further promote the energy revolution, control fossil energy consumption, and accelerate the construction of a new energy system. During the two sessions, clean energy such as hydrogen energy, green methanol, and biomass energy have also become "high-frequency words" mentioned by the deputies and committee members.
Yao Jinlong, member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and chairman of Shanxi Meijin Energy Co., Ltd., put forward suggestions on promoting the high-quality development of the hydrogen energy industry. He pointed out that the development of China's hydrogen energy industry is still in the early stage, and there are still problems in the process of promoting hydrogen energy, which have not yet been substantially incorporated into the energy system, the development of infrastructure is relatively lagging behind, and the carbon emission reduction methodology system has not been formed.
To this end, he put forward targeted suggestions from four aspects: First, departmental linkage to improve supporting measures for policies and regulations. Strengthen policy and industrial co-ordination, promote the integration of hydrogen energy into the national energy system, explore the mechanism and requirements for hydrogen as an energy product management, and pilot breakthroughs in the access bottleneck of hydrogen energy supply and application projects such as distributed hydrogen production, hydrogen production and refueling integrated stations, and hydrogen forklift applications. The second is to broaden the scenario and accelerate the construction of hydrogen energy infrastructure. It is suggested that the competent authorities of hydrogen refueling stations should be clarified at the national level, and the planning, construction and approval methods and procedures for hydrogen production projects, storage and transportation facilities, hydrogen refueling stations, hydrogen production and refueling integrated stations and other facilities should be formulated nationwide, so as to accelerate the construction and improve the commercial operation capacity. The third is to lead by innovation and increase the diversified demonstration application of hydrogen energy. It is suggested that on the basis of the current demonstration of the five hydrogen fuel cell vehicle urban agglomerations, combined with the needs of typical application scenarios such as logistics and distribution and passenger transportation across intercities, towns, urban and rural areas, and ports, it is suggested to broaden the scope of application demonstration areas and scenarios, and guide and encourage the technological innovation and application of hydrogen energy in new fields such as non-road vehicles, electric power, energy storage, and ships. Fourth, we need to be open and win-win and build a hydrogen energy carbon reduction trading system. Carry out extensive exchanges and cooperation in the hydrogen energy industry in various countries, explore the establishment of a hydrogen energy standard system in line with international standards, accelerate the establishment of a carbon emission reduction accounting methodology for hydrogen energy in transportation and other fields based on the large-scale application of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, and organize and carry out research on the national certified voluntary emission reduction (CCER) methodology in the field of hydrogen energy at the national level.
Zhang Naiwen, deputy to the National People's Congress, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Jiangsu Yueda Group Co., Ltd., put forward suggestions on the development of green methanol industry.
"Green methanol is a carbon-neutral or carbon-negative clean energy, which plays an important role in achieving decarbonization goals in energy, chemical and other fields. Zhang Naiwen said that many domestic enterprises, especially state-owned (central) enterprises, are actively exploring the green methanol industry chain. However, on the whole, China's green methanol industry is in the early stage of development, and there is a lack of unified and clear certification standards, which to a large extent limits the integration with international standards.
Zhang Naiwen suggested that government departments should take the lead in setting up a team of experts in the fields of biomass energy, chemistry and chemical engineering, environmental science, energy and economics to jointly promote the construction of a national green methanol certification standard system. It is necessary to track and understand the relevant standards and guidance documents of green methanol in the world, determine the definition boundary of green methanol in China according to domestic and foreign research results and practical experience, clarify the energy consumption, greenhouse gas emission requirements and environmental performance indicators at different stages in the whole life cycle, and build a corresponding evaluation system.
Li Yin, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of Jiuzhou Group, put forward a proposal on the development of biomass energy. He said that the EU's "carbon tariff" covers six major industries, and once fully implemented, it will have a potential impact on China's steel, chemical and other industries.
To this end, he put forward suggestions: First, increase the proportion of biomass energy in terminal consumption. Strengthen policy encouragement for biomass thermal energy, bio-natural gas, bio-methanol, biodiesel, bio-jet coal and other biomass energy sources. The second is to support the construction of a green certification system for biomass energy and strengthen the docking with the international system. The third is to encourage the industry to establish a unified online monitoring system for biomass energy. Unified construction of a large data platform system, the construction of a national biomass energy database, the formation of a point-to-area, county-based biomass energy resources advantage center, gradually establish a biomass energy trading market, with the market to guide the construction of front-end projects, and gradually increase the total utilization of biomass energy.
Hot word 3: "double carbon" talents
Achieving "dual carbon" is a broad and profound systemic change, which requires not only the investment of resources, energy, capital and science and technology, but also a large number of high-quality compound and innovative talents.
According to Wang Yanxin, a deputy to the National People's Congress, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and president of China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), the current demand for "double carbon" professionals in China is huge, complex in structure, diverse in type, and growing rapidly. There is a huge gap between the demand and supply of "dual carbon" professionals, and it is expanding rapidly. Therefore, it is particularly urgent to build a multi-level and three-dimensional "dual carbon" compound innovative talent training system.
He put forward five suggestions: first, do a good job in the top-level design of the policy system, speed up the formulation of the "double carbon" industry catalog, and improve the subdivision standards; the second is to strengthen the construction of "double carbon" disciplines and majors, and improve the ability of colleges and universities to cultivate "double carbon" talents; the third is to optimize the "double carbon" education model of colleges and universities, expand and strengthen the scientific and technological innovation platform in the field of "double carbon", more closely connect with industrial needs, and promote the "double carbon" professional education from teaching to research, practice, Fourth, we should pay attention to the campus environment to educate people, encourage and support colleges and universities to explore the establishment of campus carbon-neutral living laboratories and build a "near-zero-carbon campus"; fifth, we should create a precision employment service system, encourage vocational colleges to assume the responsibility of cultivating "double carbon" technical talents, and support and guide enterprises and other social entities to participate in the training of "double carbon" talents.
Zhang Ronghua, deputy to the National People's Congress and chairman of the board of directors of Tianjin Rongcheng Xiangtai Investment Holding Group Co., Ltd., believes that sufficient talents are a necessary condition to ensure the realization of the "double carbon" goal, and suggests that the government should introduce policies to support the formation of a consortium of production, learning and research, and build a new training mechanism for "double carbon" talents led by leading enterprises in green development.
