Recently, at the regular press conference of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in October, Xia Yingxian, director of the Department of Climate Change of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, pointed out that in March this year, The State Council officially approved the inclusion of the steel, cement and aluminum smelting industries in the carbon emission trading market. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has issued the "Work Plan for Covering the Cement, Steel and Aluminum Smelting Industries in the National Carbon Emission Trading Market" in accordance with relevant work arrangements, marking the first expansion of the carbon market. Inclusion in the carbon market will effectively promote the green and low-carbon transformation of these three industries, mainly reflected in the following three aspects.
First, enhance the driving force for emission reduction and hold enterprises accountable for their emission reduction responsibilities. During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the national carbon emissions trading market will gradually shift from intensity control to total volume control. By 2027, priority will be given to implementing quota total control for industries with relatively stable total carbon emissions. After the inclusion of the steel, cement and aluminum smelting industries, the total quota and allocation plan will effectively solidify the enterprises' responsibility for emission reduction, providing an effective guarantee for achieving the national greenhouse gas emission control targets.
Second, it will drive low-carbon investment and accelerate the innovation and promotion of green and low-carbon technologies. The expansion of the national carbon market will drive more enterprises to reduce carbon emissions through relevant technological innovation, energy-saving technological transformation, and improvement of management efficiency, thereby effectively promoting the development and investment in low-carbon, zero-carbon, and negative-carbon technologies, and providing technical and financial guarantees for the green and low-carbon transformation of key emission units.
Third, it promotes value discovery and enhances the cost-effectiveness of green and low-carbon transformation. According to statistics, after the inclusion of the steel, cement and aluminum smelting industries, the industry entities have become more diverse. Through the carbon emission trading market system, cross-industry resource allocation is promoted, which is conducive to reducing the overall cost of emission reduction for the whole society.
Next, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will further follow the relevant work arrangements of the two offices, continuously expand the coverage of industries, give priority to implementing total quota control in industries with relatively stable total carbon emissions, promote paid allocation of quotas, and enrich trading entities. Through the above measures, the pricing function of the carbon market will be further strengthened, promoting the formation of a carbon price that better reflects the true cost of emission reduction, and striving to achieve the optimization and maximization of the efficiency of carbon emission reduction resource allocation.
