[ad_1]
Photo: Xinhua
China’s national carbon market, the world’s largest emissions trading system, debuted on Friday with 210 million yuan in carbon dioxide emissions on the first day.
More than 4.1 million tonnes of carbon dioxide emission allowances changed hands on Friday, at an average price of 51.23 yuan per tonne, which was also the day’s closing price, up 6 , 73% from the opening price of 48 yuan.
The first day price was slightly above market expectations. Industry experts believe this may signal strong upward momentum in the domestic carbon market.
In the past, carbon emission allowances were traded at prices sometimes as low as 20 yuan per tonne and sometimes as high as 100 yuan in some regions’ pilot trading system. But the overall average price is around 40 yuan per ton, Lin Boqiang, dean of the China Institute for Energy Policy Studies at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Saturday.
“So day one closing may seem a bit expensive to some,” Lin said. “Given China’s peak carbon emissions and carbon neutrality targets, the carbon market is expected to expand significantly over the next few years in order to provide enough incentives for companies to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions. . “
A group of Chinese power and energy giants, including CNPC, Sinopec, Huaneng Group and Datang Group, participated in the first day trading of the national carbon market, according to the Securities Times.
According to Lin, there are two main reasons why power generation has become the first industry included in the national program. First, the electricity industry has a huge amount of carbon emissions.
Second, as long as the price of electricity remains stable, the move will not have too much of an impact on downstream industries, so the overall impact on the real economy will be manageable, Lin noted.
In the meantime, other industries with massive carbon emissions may also have more time to prepare to transition to low-carbon development, Lin added.
Let us take the example of the steel industry. In 2020, the total turnover of member companies of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) reached 5.16 trillion yuan, with research and development accounting for 2.17% of the total, a a senior CISA official said at an industry forum on Saturday. Much of the R&D in steel mills relates to energy savings and emission reductions.
China aims to peak CO2 emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced in September 2020 during the general debate at the 75th session of the General Assembly of Nations United by video.
[ad_2]
Source link