On the 1st of this month, the world's first "carbon tariff", the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), began trial operation, and has been in trial operation for nearly a month. The EU's Carbon Border Regulation Mechanism (CBAM) means that certain goods release greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide when they enter the EU's borders, and these goods need to pay an additional sum to the EU, which is related to the amount of greenhouse gases released during the production of the goods. The main objective of the EU carbon border regulation mechanism is to prevent "carbon leakage" and maintain the fair competition order of products. The transition period will last until December 31, 2025, with the levy officially taking effect on January 1, 2026, and full implementation by 2034. At the moment when the trial operation is about to be full moon, the 21st Century Business Herald reporter interviewed a number of experts and asked how Chinese enterprises can step through this "carbon level". At present, the scope of carbon tariff collection covers "steel, aluminum, electricity, cement, fertilizer, hydrogen" six industries, basically covers all the current basic heavy industry categories, carbon emissions accounting boundary is "direct emissions + indirect emissions under certain conditions" form, at the same time, The accounting of carbon tariff costs also needs to consider the form of carbon emissions.
Recently, "China's 100 Listed Companies Carbon Emissions Ranking (2023)" released, the list shows that the list of 100 companies in 2022 annual carbon dioxide emissions of about 5.048 billion tons, nearly half of China's total carbon emissions that year. Among them, power, cement and steel are the three major industries that make up the list, with a total of 69 enterprises on the list, and the total carbon emissions reach 2.199 billion tons, 985 million tons and 625 million tons respectively, accounting for 75.48% of the total emissions on the list. The average carbon efficiency of the three industries is 0.07 million yuan/ton, 0.08 million yuan/ton, and 0.32 million yuan/ton, respectively, which is lower than the average of the list, and the economic pressure of carbon reduction is greater. According to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter, in 2022, the highest carbon emission enterprise is Guodian Power, which emitted about 379 million tons of carbon dioxide. The total carbon emissions of 13 giants with emissions of more than 100 million tons reached 2.615 billion tons, accounting for more than half (51.8%) of the total list.
One of the most important factors influencing carbon tariffs is the carbon price in the domestic carbon market and the carbon content of the product. The EU regards carbon price as a necessary condition, when the price of the carbon market in the country is close to the carbon price in the EU, even if the carbon content of the product is high, it can avoid paying carbon tariffs. Du D «½, Director of the Low Carbon Transition Project of the Energy Foundation, pointed out that "carbon tariff is a mechanism designed to avoid carbon leakage or carbon transfer, because the intensity of carbon control between countries is different from that of the entire economy". The release of CBAM was not intended as a barrier It is to allow manufacturers exporting to the EU and manufacturers in the EU to stand on the same starting line based on carbon costs. Du D «½ believes that China first needs a relatively complete carbon market and carbon price system, which can have a relatively solid negotiation with the EU The essence of a carbon tariff is to balance the carbon cost of imports with that of EU products. This would force other countries to set up carbon markets or impose carbon taxes in order to achieve reductions or raise the price of carbon through carbon pricing and to reach the same level as the EU. Therefore, there are views that if China does not take measures to optimize the domestic carbon trading rules, stimulate the vitality of the market and raise the level of carbon prices, then according to the current trend, the international trade barriers of export enterprises will be more and more difficult to break, the production cost of enterprises will rise, the international competitiveness of products will decline, and the scale of China's exports will be significantly reduced.
"In the carbon market, sectors outside the electricity sector are involved in indirect emissions. Many of the problems associated with indirect emissions are borne by companies. Therefore, in the decision-making process of the international market, we hope to promote communication through some effective ways in the face of practical issues such as the demand for 'dual carbon', the development of renewable energy and the need for energy conservation and emission reduction." Emphasized by Du ð«½. Qian Guoqiang, deputy general manager of Zhongchuang Carbon Investment Technology Co., LTD., believes that China's current head enterprises have not been able to really formulate the rules of product terminal procurement. Therefore, in this international trade and technological competition, enterprises have been in a passive state, in the future, only when our industry is at the top of the entire industrial division of labor, in order to define the market, passive into active. A senior researcher in the power industry said that with the launch of China's carbon market, the country will form a national market and regional markets keep pace with the overall pattern, the further development of China's voluntary carbon emission reduction market will make the market participants more diversified, more abundant trading varieties, and gradually have more extensive international characteristics. It is believed that with the gradual improvement of the vitality of China's carbon market, the gap between China and the international carbon price will be narrowed.
