Liuwei photography

The carbon sink building in Qingyuzui, Wuhan, is being renovated these days. In a few days, financial institutions such as Hubei Carbon Emissions Trading Center will officially settle in.

According to the arrangement, the national carbon emission rights registration system (hereinafter referred to as "China Carbon Board") located here is responsible for opening accounts for the first batch of 2,225 electric power enterprises, and will be launched at the end of June. This also means that the world's largest carbon emissions trading market is officially put into operation. At the same time, Shanghai United Assets and Equity Exchange is also stepping up the joint debugging and testing of the national carbon trading system.

On June 19, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment announced that Hubei Carbon Emission Trading Center Co., Ltd. will undertake the specific work of opening, operating and maintaining the accounts of the national carbon emission registration system before the establishment of the national carbon emission registration institution; Before the establishment of the national carbon emissions trading institution, Shanghai Environmental Energy Exchange Co., Ltd. undertook the specific work of opening, operating and maintaining the accounts of the national carbon emissions trading system.

Wuhan and Shanghai are all sprinting.

In February this year, Minister of Ecology and Environment Huang Runqiu went to Hubei and Shanghai to investigate the construction of carbon market, emphasizing that the national carbon market is one of the core policy tools to implement China's peak carbon dioxide emission target and carbon neutrality vision, and it is also a major institutional innovation to control and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote green and low-carbon development by using market mechanisms.

"Hubei Carbon Emissions Trading Center has made a lot of innovations and explorations in the fields of carbon emissions trading, carbon financial products and services, low-carbon industry investment and financing, and carbon asset management. The' six-dimensional theory' that promotes the effectiveness, liquidity and continuity of the carbon market is still the first in China. " Liu Hanwu, general manager of Hubei Carbon Emissions Trading Center, said on the center's official website.

The data shows that since 20 1 1, the carbon market in Hubei has included 373 enterprises, all of which are industrial enterprises with annual energy consumption 10000 tons of standard coal, and their total emissions have reached 273 million tons, accounting for about 45% of the carbon emissions in Hubei Province. Involved in power, steel, cement, chemical industry and other industries 16, accounting for 70% of the output value of the secondary industry in the province. Up to now, the cumulative carbon emissions have reached 347 million tons, with a turnover of 8139 million yuan. The transaction scale, the amount of social funds introduced and the participation of enterprises all rank first in the country.

From 20 17 to 12, "China Carbon Board" was settled in Wuhan, Hubei Province, becoming a big data center of carbon assets in China, and undertaking important business and management functions such as carbon emission rights confirmation registration, transaction settlement, distribution and performance.

Urban landscape of Wuhan City, Hubei Province. Photography/Zhang Ke

On May 19 this year, Gao Li, director of the Climate Change Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that the launch of the national carbon market transaction was a big test when he investigated the progress of the national carbon emission rights registration system and the preparations for the launch of the national carbon market transaction in Wuhan.

Gao Li said that the registration system is the core support system of the national carbon market, which is directly related to the smooth start of the transaction and the subsequent smooth operation, and it is necessary to "sprint the system construction".

On May 20th, Gao Li and his party went to Shanghai to conduct on-the-spot investigation on the construction of the national carbon emissions trading system, and had on-the-spot exchanges with the enterprises participating in the test. By the end of 2020, all enterprises in Shanghai that have been included in the carbon emission quota management have paid the carbon emission quota for 20 19, and maintained the performance record of 100% for seven consecutive years.

Carbon trading will benefit many parties.

According to public information, the trading volume of China carbon trading market will reach 250 million tons in 20021year, which is three times of the total trading volume of the pilot exchange in 2020, and the trading amount will reach 6 billion yuan.

The products traded in the national carbon market are actually carbon emission quotas. For example, an enterprise has obtained a carbon dioxide emission target of 300,000 tons a year after assessment. If the enterprise actually emits 350,000 tons of carbon dioxide, it will spend money to buy 50,000 tons exceeding the standard from other enterprises; On the contrary, if the enterprise is expected to emit only 654.38 million tons of carbon dioxide that year, the extra 200,000 tons can be sold to other enterprises.

At present, the trading price of carbon dioxide is about 22 yuan/ton 32 yuan/ton. The Management Rules of Carbon Emission Trading (Trial) stipulates that carbon emission quota trading is based on the "price per ton of carbon dioxide equivalent", and the minimum change of declared amount is 1 ton of carbon dioxide equivalent, and the minimum change of declared price is 0.0 1 RMB.

According to the quota allocation method, all the quotas from 20 19 to 2020 will be allocated free of charge, and the quotas of units belonging to key emission units will be calculated by the benchmark method. The quota of key emission units is the sum of all kinds of unit quotas owned by them.

Power companies will be the first enterprises to participate in carbon trading. Photography/Zhang Ke

Sun Yongping, a member of Hubei Carbon Trading Expert Committee and a professor at Hubei University of Economics, said recently that the settlement of "Carbon Board" in Wuhan, Hubei Province will further exert the financial agglomeration effect and attract capital, technology, green financial institutions and various financial elements to move closer to the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Take the carbon market as a bridge, open up the development channel of the central and western regions and realize the interconnection between the carbon market and other capital markets.

The person in charge of Hubei Carbon Emission Trading Center recently publicly stated that Wuhan can seize the national carbon financial center and the central financial center by virtue of the first-Mover advantage of "carbon neutral" settlement, and then promote the development of green low-carbon industries with the "three engines" of market, finance and technology, and seize the opportunity period of carbon neutral and two green low-carbon industries in 2030 and 2060 at the peak of carbon dioxide emission, so as to rebuild a 100 billion-level industrial cluster for Wuhan.

Liu Hanwu said in the above-mentioned official website that the carbon market will directly promote the green and low-carbon transformation of traditional industries, indirectly promote the development of new green and low-carbon industries, spawn new business forms, spawn a large number of green and low-carbon service industries such as carbon asset management institutions, consulting institutions, third-party verification institutions and green certification institutions, and form new economic growth poles.

Industry experts have also predicted recently that after the operation of the national carbon emissions trading market, local stock exchanges will directly benefit, and the included industries will also benefit from trading quotas and voluntary emission reduction (CCER). In addition, third-party testing institutions involved in carbon emissions will also benefit.