Tianjin Carbon Market Compliance Rate 100% for 9 consecutive years

Tianjin City's 2023 carbon emission compliance work has ended on June 30, 2024. All 154 key greenhouse gas emission units in the city have completed compliance, and the carbon market compliance rate has reached 100% for nine consecutive years. Recently, the heads of relevant departments of the Tianjin City Ecological Environment Bureau introduced the 2023 carbon emission compliance, the effectiveness of Tianjin City carbon market construction and future work measures.

Carbon market construction develops healthily and orderly

Since 2013, the Tianjin City Ecological Environment Bureau has included enterprises in five industries: electricity and heat, steel, chemicals, petrochemicals, and oil and gas exploration with carbon emissions exceeding 20,000 tons/year into quota management, developed and constructed registration and trading systems, established and continuously improved relevant systems, and steadily and orderly promoted the construction of the carbon market. In 2019, Tianjin's carbon market will expand to 8 industries, and in 2021, it will expand to the entire industrial industry. As of 2023, a total of 177 companies have been included in Tianjin City (their carbon emissions account for more than 70% of the city), of which power generation companies have transferred to the national carbon market.

The Tianjin Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government attach great importance to the construction of the carbon market, and have included carbon emission management in the list of key tasks of Tianjin City's "Ten Actions", included it in the assessment content, and continued to carry out scheduling. Through ten years of construction and development, Tianjin City's carbon emissions trading system has been continuously improved, incorporating enterprises 'awareness of energy conservation and carbon reduction and steadily improving their carbon emission management capabilities. Especially since entering the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the number of trading entities in Tianjin's carbon market has continued to increase, carbon trading prices have steadily increased, and carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP have continued to decrease. The role of local carbon markets in promoting green and low-carbon development has become increasingly significant.

Zhang Zesheng, director of the Climate and International Division of the Tianjin City Ecological Environment Bureau, believes that such results have been achieved because, on the one hand, the Municipal Party Committee and the Municipal Government attach great importance to the construction of the carbon market. On the other hand, the "Tianjin City Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutralization Promotion Regulations" stipulate that legal obligations are included in enterprises to complete quota settlement and performance, and legal protection is strengthened for carbon emission management. In addition, through publicity and guidance, a good atmosphere has been formed to vigorously promote green and low-carbon development, which has incorporated enterprises 'initiative to take energy conservation and carbon reduction measures, and actively fulfill their obligations to pay off their performance.

Innovative measures to manage carbon emissions

"Tianjin organizes verification of incorporated enterprises every year to confirm actual emissions. If the actual emissions of the enterprise are greater than the quota amount, the gap quotas will be purchased through the carbon market; when the quota amount is greater than the emissions, the surplus quotas can be sold through carbon market transactions to obtain income." Zhang Zesheng said that according to statistics, since the "14th Five-Year Plan", 49 incorporated enterprises in Tianjin City have earned 186 million yuan in revenue through the sale of carbon quotas. Through the market adjustment mechanism of "increasing carbon costs and reducing carbon benefits," innovative methods and methods have been adopted to guide incorporated enterprises to proactively adopt energy conservation and carbon reduction measures, explore coordinated development paths for reducing pollution and carbon reduction, and reduce carbon emissions.

In terms of carbon emission management, Tianjin City has accumulated a series of innovative practices. The first is to flexibly choose quota allocation methods. In addition to the "two high" industries stipulated by the state, it is stipulated that enterprises in other industries can choose their own historical emission laws or historical intensity methods to allocate carbon quotas based on actual conditions, so as to give full play to the guiding role of carbon quotas in enterprises 'green and low-carbon development.

The second is to set quota gaps and surplus ceilings. A quota gap and surplus ceiling of 20% are set in the quota settlement work, that is, the maximum quota gap or surplus of included enterprises is 20% of the performance emissions, so as to reduce the performance burden faced by included enterprises due to large quota gaps., while avoiding excessive quota surpluses.

The third is to try to organize quota auctions. When enterprises have relatively tight surplus quotas, insufficient carbon market supply, and it is difficult for enterprises with gaps to perform their duties, auctions are adopted to allow enterprises with gaps to purchase government-reserved quotas. In recent years, Tianjin City has organized five quota auctions, with a total amount of approximately 6.65 million tons distributed to help enterprises complete the payment of carbon emission quotas.

The fourth is to explore and carry out green electricity and carbon reduction. Without reducing carbon quotas, green power carbon emissions are calculated as zero, and enterprises 'surplus carbon emission quotas can be earned through sales in the carbon market. In 2023, 45 enterprises in Tianjin City will use 1.49 million MWh of green electricity, equivalent to approximately 1.32 million tons of carbon emissions, an increase of 482% compared with 2022. The enthusiasm of enterprises to purchase and use green electricity continues to increase, and the effect of promoting energy decarbonization is significant.

Continue to increase carbon market activity

With the implementation of the "Interim Regulations on the Administration of Carbon Emissions Trading"(hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations") on May 1 this year, carbon emissions from electricity, petrochemicals, chemicals, building materials, steel, nonferrous metals, papermaking, and civil aviation exceed 26,000 tons/year Enterprises must gradually shift from the local carbon market to the national carbon market. At present, all enterprises in the power generation industry in Tianjin City have transferred to the national carbon market.

Zhang Zesheng said that for the Tianjin carbon market, in the future, we will focus on three aspects of work on the basis of consolidating existing work: First, in accordance with national deployment, transfer qualified enterprises in other industries in Tianjin City to the national carbon market, and continue to do a good job in carbon emissions reporting, verification and promotion of payment and compliance to ensure a smooth transition. Second, Tianjin City should improve and improve relevant management systems in accordance with the provisions of the "Regulations", strengthen supervision and management of local carbon markets, and continue to deepen the construction of local carbon markets. The third is to study and expand the local carbon market into the scope of industry enterprises, explore the introduction of carbon inclusive project emission reductions into local carbon markets to participate in emissions trading, increase market trading entities and trading varieties, and enhance the activity of Tianjin's carbon market.