Construction, challenges and market expansion of emissions trading system
Carbon emission entitlements can achieve allocative efficiency through market transactions,which has both theoretical ground and practical support.Carbon emissions,as a kind of bads,need to be continuously compressed or controlled by quota,which is essentially different from any sort of ‘ goods ’.Therefore,there are inherent difficulties in the market transactions of carbon emissions.During the construction of domestic carbon market,such a situation will deteriorate.Firstly,it is because that constrained by overlapping factors of economy,politics,environment and society,multiple and complicate checks and balances exist between China and international community,between central and local governments,among local governments and between governments and enterprises,leading to potential uncertainty about the identification and distribution of total emissions.Secondly,the carbon accounting is subject to energy sector and it is not completely independent as a passive commodity.If the choice of an enterprise is connected to its energy efficiency and energy conservation,then the energy use entitlements overlap with carbon emission entitlements.Due to the subordinate and passive attribute of carbon as a commodity,the carbon constraint on the decision making of enterprises may be weakened or marginalized,and thus its price signal to customers would be partly distorted.Thirdly,only an open and competitive market is an efficient one,but judging from the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and domestic pilot projects,this system is relatively closed.Fourthly,the low quality of carbon-intensive products may impose some constraint on enterprises through selfregulation;but for the carbon locked-in physical infrastructure,its cost can only be borne by the whole society and would fail to be actually reflected in emissions trading system.Fifthly,the energy use entitlements and carbon emissions entitlements may be compatible and integrated with each other;however,the passing-on of incentives in a carbon trading market may cease to have any effect because of some institutional constraints.Therefore,China needs to take into account the attributes and features of carbon emissions in the top-level design and expand the market space for emissions trading during its construction of carbon trading system.First and foremost,China should shift the attitude towards carbon trading from a constraint to an opportunity.Secondly,carbon should be budgeted to achieve allocative efficiency and effective control.Furthermore,the country needs to establish a development-oriented carbon trading market to expand the market size and take measures such as including forests carbon sinks and linking carbon market to ecological compensation.Finally,construction of net zero-carbon cities should be encouraged.
国家科技期刊平台
NSTL
万方数据
维普
