The quota allocation plan for the national carbon market in 2021 and 2022 was officially released.
On March 15, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment officially released the "2021 and 2022 National Carbon Emissions Trading Allowance Setting and Allocation Implementation Plan (Power Generation Industry)" ("Quota Plan"). Since only power generation is currently included in the national carbon market, this plan is the quota allocation plan for the national carbon market in 2021 and 2022.
The "Quota Plan" stipulates the 2021 and 2022 quota accounting and allocation methods for the power generation industry in the national carbon market, and clarifies the management process of quota issuance, adjustment, payment and performance.
In 2021 and 2022, the annual management of quotas will be implemented, and the links such as quota pre-allocation, approval, and payment will be managed on a natural-year basis, which is different from the practice of using the same quota allocation benchmark value and two-year combined performance in 2019 and 2020. In 2022, a different quota allocation benchmark value was adopted.
"The benchmark value for the second year is determined based on the actual emissions of the previous year, so that the benchmark value is more in line with the actual situation of the industry, reflecting the trend of increasing energy efficiency and decreasing carbon emissions per unit of output in the power generation industry year by year." Relevant to the Climate Change Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment The person in charge said, "In 2021 and 2022, the quotas will be issued separately and the contract will be implemented. Especially when implementing the performance exemption mechanism to calculate the quota gap rate, it will be calculated on an annual basis."
While implementing annual management, the "Quota Plan" also allows emission-controlled enterprises to pre-appropriate quotas and carry forward quotas. Among them, in terms of quota advance payment, key emission units with a quota gap rate of 10% and above and who are temporarily unable to complete the contract due to operating difficulties can apply to the provincial ecological and environmental authority for advance payment of part of the pre-allocated quota in 2023 to complete the contract. If it exceeds 50% of the annual quota gap, the pre-approved amount can only be used for the quota performance of the unit in the current year, and cannot be used for other purposes such as transactions, mortgages, etc. The pre-approved amount will be deducted in equal amounts in the 2023 annual quota verification and payment link.
"Considering the economic situation in 2021 and 2022 and the pressure of ensuring energy supply, in order to effectively alleviate the burden of compliance in the power generation industry, the '2021 and 2022 Plan' continues the basis of the implementation of the compliance exemption mechanism for gas-fired units and companies with large quota gaps in the previous compliance cycle. In addition, the addition of a flexible contract performance mechanism and a personalized rescue mechanism will help reduce the burden on enterprises." Zhang Jianhong, executive director of the Environmental Technology and Economics Branch of the Chinese Society of Technical Economics, said in an interview with a reporter from the Securities Times.
In addition, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment will also conduct overall research on personalized rescue plans for key emission units that undertake major livelihood protection tasks and still find it difficult to complete compliance after implementing the performance exemption mechanism and flexible mechanism.
In terms of quota carryover, although the "Quota Plan" has not disclosed specific details, it has clarified that quotas can be carried forward, saying that "the relevant regulations on quota carryover for the power generation industry in the national carbon market for 2019-2020 will be issued separately." An industry insider told reporters that the remaining quota of the first compliance cycle may be carried over to the subsequent compliance cycle on a 1:1 basis.
In view of the fact that the current allowance is still adopted in the way of "post-allocation", the relevant person in charge of the Department of Climate Change of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment explained that the national carbon market is in the early stage of development in 2021 and 2022, and the level of carbon emission accounting and verification and data quality supervision capabilities need to be improved. In particular, due to the large change in the proportion of units that actually measure the carbon content of coal-burning elements, there is a certain degree of uncertainty in the carbon emission data. The use of "pre-allocation" requires accurate estimation of carbon emission data, which must be based on high-quality carbon emission data and scientific and accurate analysis and prediction. For the sake of safety, adopt the method of "subsequent allocation" and continue the practice of the first compliance cycle to better ensure that the total amount of quota allocation meets the expected goals, and neither will the industry's emission reduction burden be too heavy due to the shrinkage of the total allocation amount. Nor will the carbon market fail to play a better role in promoting emission reduction because the total allocation is too loose.
According to reports, in the next step, with the continuous improvement of the national carbon market data quality system, the gradual improvement of the management level, and the improvement of the timeliness and accuracy of data acquisition, we will actively study how to gradually adjust from "post-event allocation" to "in-event allocation" or "in-process allocation". Pre-allocation” specific plans, and clear expectations to market players as early as possible.
The Ministry of Ecology and Environment also stated that after the provincial ecological and environmental authorities have completed the quota verification, they must organize key emission units to complete the 2021 and 2022 annual quotas of the national carbon market as soon as possible, so as to ensure that 95% of the quotas in the administrative region will be released before November 15, 2023. The key emission units have completed the performance of the contract, and all key emission units have completed the performance before December 31.
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