On July 21, Xia Yingxian, Director of the Climate Change Response Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said at the China Carbon Market Conference 2024 that the carbon market is the basic system for my country to implement the national strategy of actively responding to climate change and promote the goal of reaching carbon peak and carbon neutrality. It is also the main form of my country's carbon pricing mechanism. The Party Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the construction of the national carbon market and continue to consolidate various basic tasks for the development of the national carbon market on the basis of achieving stable operation of the market.
Xia Yingxian, Director of the Climate Change Response Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment
First, an infrastructure support system of "one network (national carbon market information network), two institutions (registration and trading institutions), and three platforms (national carbon market management platform, registration, and trading system)" has been built, realizing the entire business management link is online, full-process data is centralized, and comprehensive decision-making is scientific.
The second is to strengthen the quality management of carbon emission data. Optimize the carbon emission accounting method for the power generation industry, and reduce the number of calculation formulas from 27 to 12. A long-term supervision and assistance mechanism for normalizing the quality of carbon emission data has been established, and a three-level joint review of "national-province-city" has been implemented. The monthly deposit and timely submission rate of key emission units has been continuously maintained at 100%. It organized and carried out three rounds of data quality supervision and assistance, and carried out on-site supervision of 538 key emission units. A total of 54 administrative penalties were imposed on data quality problems in various places, and penalties were filed and quotas were reduced equivalent to approximately 1.4 billion yuan.
The third is to improve the quota allocation and payment management mechanism. With the policy orientation of "encouraging advanced and encouraging backward", we will continue to optimize and adjust the quota allocation plan for the power generation industry. Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment has publicly solicited opinions on the 2023 and 2024 power generation industry quota allocation plans and the accounting and reporting guidelines for the cement and aluminum smelting industries, which will be released and implemented soon.
Xia Yingxian said that under the guidance of the goal of "building a more effective, more dynamic and more internationally influential carbon market", the next step will be to accelerate the construction of the national carbon market from four aspects to help achieve the "double carbon" goal.
The first is to strengthen national carbon market planning guidance and institutional norms. Take the national carbon market as a basic institutional arrangement to promote the realization of the "double carbon" goal, and comprehensively and scientifically plan the construction ideas and development goals of the carbon market in the future. Deeply implement the "Interim Regulations on the Management of Carbon Emissions Trading", revise the "Measures for the Management of Carbon Emissions Trading (Trial)", improve registration, registration, and trading rules, etc., and promptly study and solve new problems and situations arising in the development of the national carbon market.
The second is to orderly expand the coverage of the national carbon market industry. In accordance with the principle of "one mature, one integrated", key emission industries will be included in the national carbon market in stages and steps, carbon emission accounting reports and verification technical specifications for the cement, aluminum smelting and steel industries will be released as soon as possible, and industry quota allocation plans will be formulated. Improve the functions of the national carbon market management platform, registration system and trading system, strengthen the capacity building of newly incorporated industries, and ensure the smooth and orderly expansion of the national carbon market.
The third is to continue to strengthen the quality management of national carbon market data. Adhere to using data quality as the "lifeline" of carbon market construction, accelerate the establishment of a carbon emission accounting, reporting and verification system that is more in line with the actual situation of the national carbon market and has a higher degree of acceptance by enterprises, and do a good job in monthly key carbon emission data of key emission units. Information-based deposit and certificate work, give full play to the effectiveness of the existing "national-provincial-municipal" three-level joint review mechanism for carbon emission data, and make good use of advanced technologies such as big data and the Internet of Things to improve the level of supervision, including blockchain-related technologies. Strengthen the main responsibilities of data quality management of key emission units and always maintain a high-pressure situation against data fraud.
The fourth is to better play the function of the national carbon market. Adhere to the basic positioning of the national carbon market as a policy tool for emission reduction, and better leverage the financial attributes of the carbon market on the basis of preventing financial and other risks. Work with relevant departments to further standardize the carbon emission pledge business, promote the implementation of paid allocation of quotas, promptly introduce qualified financial institutions to participate in market transactions, and enrich the types of trading entities.