Carbon Market
has been seen as a tool to help reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emission in
China. With the newest policy been published in 2008, the government department
oversees Carbon Market has been switched from National Development and Reform Committee
to MEE. Director of MEE, Ganjie Li, said on Mar.11st during a meeting that
developing the Carbon Market will be a priority for MEE, and compare to 2015,
the carbon emission per unit of GDP has decreased for 45.8%.
China’s
carbon market was first initiated back in 2013, and seven pilot regions started
carbon trading in 2014. Until the end of 2017, the national market is officially
in play with power sector to be the first involved in the market. Although the
national market is currently operating, detailed framework and regulations are
still under reviewing. In addition, relevant departments are looking at the
designing of market management methods, emission report standards and emission auditing
methods.
Power
sector is among the industries with high GHG emission, therefore, by first
involving power sector into the carbon market will set a model for the fully
operating market later. However, experts believe that there are things should
be watched when developing the power sector carbon market. First is that, regulators
should be aware of the different trading polices that used in different regions
to avoid unnecessary misinterpretations. Second, regulators in different
regions should work with each other to seek the best way to share or transfer any
clean energy technology or emission reduction methods.
Third, while
running the power sector carbon market, regulators should consider how to eventually
manage any secondary market that evolved from the carbon market.
MEE’s responsibilities as Carbon Market overseer
are as follow, to draft policy regarding to mitigate climate change and
emission reduction, lead the negotiation with foreign organizations and fulfil the
nation’s duty in combating the climate change. While MEE is also facing
multiple challenges, for instance, how to incorporate market mechanisms with
regulations to achieve emission reduction, and how to properly design a
management framework to maintain the operation of a public market.