College of Social Sciences

The carbon inclusion system refers to the specific quantification and value of energy conservation and carbon reduction behavior of small and micro enterprises, communities, households and individuals, and the establishment of a positive guidance mechanism combining commercial incentives, policy incentives and certified emission reduction trading; aiming to popularize low-carbon knowledge, promote low-carbon life and low-carbon consumption, and promote the use of low-carbon products and technologies. At the national level, after China proposed the goal of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality (September 22, 2020), supporting opinions for the construction of carbon inclusion pilot projects were proposed. In October 2021, China submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change the document "China's Implementation of Nationally Determined Contributions and New Targets and New Measures", which stated that China will promote the pilot construction of the "carbon universal" system and encourage the whole society to reduce emissions. At the provincial level, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, Zhejiang and other provinces have proposed to implement the Generalized System of Carbon Preferences, while Guangdong Province has also proposed to develop and improve the carbon universal certification methodology. At the municipal level, more than 30 cities in China have explored and practiced the Generalized System of Carbon Preferences, including Guangzhou City in Guangdong Province and Chengdu City in Sichuan Province, which have issued implementation measures for carbon universalization to promote mechanisms such as individual carbon accounts and carbon credits. At present, carbon benefits can be divided into four categories: ecological conservation, low-carbon life, low-carbon consumption, and green public welfare. Project-based carbon inclusion has played a good role in promoting green and low-carbon development of small and medium-sized enterprises, and the ways of public participation in carbon emission reduction have become increasingly diversified. However, China's carbon inclusion system is still in the initial exploration stage, and many problems and challenges still need to be solved, such as the difficulty of quantifying low-carbon behavior, relatively low public participation, the expansion of emission reduction consumption channels, and the difficulty of mutual recognition of regional carbon inclusion mechanisms. It is necessary to establish a unified and standardized carbon inclusion methodological accounting system, actively expand the channels for the consumption of carbon inclusion emission reductions, and strengthen the mutual recognition of cross-regional and universal carbon preferential systems.

 

NB: this is a longer version of a talk originally planned for 20 September which had to be cancelled for technical reasons.