Kyoto Protocol, also known as Kyoto Treaty, is the full name of Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. It is a supplementary framework of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Its goal is to "stabilize the greenhouse gas content in the atmosphere at an appropriate level, so as to prevent severe climate change from causing harm to human beings". The specific target in the Kyoto Protocol is "from 2008 to 20 12. The average industrial carbon dioxide emissions of major industrial countries in the world are 5.2% lower than 1990. " According to the treaty, developed countries will undertake carbon emission reduction obligations from 2005, and developing countries will undertake carbon emission reduction obligations from 2065, 438+0.2. At present, 1.83 countries have adopted the treaty (more than 665438 of the global emissions). The United States has not signed the treaty (the United States accounts for only 3% to 4% of the global population, but its carbon dioxide emissions account for more than 25% of the global emissions, making it the largest country in the world).

The target greenhouse gases agreed in Kyoto Protocol include carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).

In order to promote countries to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, the Kyoto Protocol allows the following four ways to reduce emissions:

1. "Emission trading" between two developed countries, that is, countries that have difficulty in fulfilling their emission reduction tasks can spend money to buy excess quotas from countries that have exceeded their tasks;

2. Calculate greenhouse gas emissions by "net emissions", that is, deduct the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed by forests from the actual national emissions;

3. Green development mechanism can be used to urge developed and developing countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions;

4. The "group model" can be adopted, that is, many countries in the EU can be regarded as a whole, some countries cut back, some countries increase, and the emission reduction task can be completed as a whole.

What is CDM?

CDM(Clean Development Mechanism) is one of the three flexible implementation mechanisms introduced by Kyoto Protocol, and it is a project-based mechanism that developed and developing countries cooperate to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

According to the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities", developed countries that have completed the industrial revolution should bear more historical responsibilities for climate change, but the emission reduction cost of developed countries is several times or even dozens of times that of developing countries. According to the theory of economic externalities and economic optimization, CDM has found a relatively reasonable balance between the maximization of emission reduction targets and global economic optimization, that is, for developed countries, it gives them some flexibility to fulfill their obligations at a lower cost and reduces the domestic emission reduction obligations. For developing countries, take advantage of the low cost of emission reduction to help developed countries obtain funds and technology from developed countries and promote their sustainable development; For the whole world, the total emission reduction cost can be reduced under the premise of achieving the same emission reduction target.

To put it simply, in order to undertake emission reduction targets, developed countries are bound to carry out energy-saving and emission reduction transformation of existing industrialization projects, which not only increases the cost of enterprises, but also brings greater pressure to the inflation level and national economic development; On the other hand, new energy and new technologies have been widely used in developed countries, and the cost of further emission reduction is extremely high, which leads to the uneconomical phenomenon of emission reduction and the obligation of emission reduction is greatly challenged. However, the degree of industrialization in developing countries is far lower than that in developed countries, so the transfer cost in energy conservation and emission reduction is far lower than that in developed countries. Therefore, the goal of maintaining global total emission reduction can be achieved by reducing emissions more in developing countries and less in developed countries.

The CDM project aims to achieve this global emission reduction. Developed countries help developing countries to increase emission reduction through technology and funds, thus offsetting some targets of their emission reduction obligations. At present, the most practical way to realize CDM project is "carbon trading".

Potential projects meeting the requirements of CDM include improving terminal energy efficiency, improving supply-side energy efficiency, renewable energy, alternative fuels, agriculture (methane and nitrous oxide emission reduction projects), industrial processes (cement production and other carbon dioxide emission reduction projects, hydrofluorocarbons, carbon peroxide or sulfur hexafluoride emission reduction projects) and carbon sink projects (only applicable to afforestation and reforestation projects).

What is carbon trading?

Because of the high efficiency of energy utilization and the optimization of energy structure in developed countries, new energy technologies are widely used. The cost of further emission reduction in these developed countries is extremely high and it is very difficult. Developing countries have low energy efficiency, large space for emission reduction and low cost. This leads to different costs of the same emission reduction unit in different countries, resulting in a high price difference. The demand of developed countries is great, and the supply capacity of developing countries is also great, resulting in a carbon trading market.

According to the Kyoto Protocol, developed countries can adopt three flexible "overseas emission reduction" mechanisms when fulfilling their greenhouse gas emission reduction obligations:

1. Joint implementation (JI) refers to the transfer of emission reduction units (EUR) achieved by developed countries through project cooperation;

2. Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) means that developed countries provide capital and technology, cooperate with developing countries in projects, realize CER, and greatly reduce the cost of emission reduction in China;

3. Emissions trading (ET), in which a developed country directly transfers its excess emission reduction obligations to another developed country that has not fulfilled its emission reduction obligations.

The EU Emissions Trading System (EUETS) stipulates that manufacturers in the 27 EU countries must meet the carbon dioxide emission reduction standards set by EUETS. If the emission reduction exceeds the standard, they can sell the carbon dioxide emission rights called "EU Carbon Quota" (EUA). On the other hand, if the emission reduction is not up to standard, it is necessary to purchase the corresponding quota emission rights from the market.

With the establishment of CDM mechanism, carbon dioxide emission reduction is designed as products that can be transferred and traded. Developed countries exchange capital and technology for various greenhouse gas emission rights, and developing countries can directly benefit from the sale of greenhouse gas emission rights.

At present, the major carbon emission exchanges in the world include EUA, EEX, OTC, BlueNext and Bordpool.

China was once the biggest beneficiary of CDM. However, with the approach of 20 12, CDM has changed from a "lifeline" to a "hot potato". According to the first commitment of Kyoto Protocol, developing countries do not need to undertake global carbon emission reduction obligations before 20 12. Then China will face enormous carbon emission pressure after 20 12.

China government announced that by 2020, China's carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP will be reduced by 40%. In order to achieve this goal, it is suggested to formulate a domestic carbon emission reduction plan, establish a domestic "carbon trading market" and trade carbon emission rights in domestic provinces or enterprises.

In 2008, China established Shanghai Environmental Energy Exchange, Beijing Environmental Exchange and Tianjin Emissions Exchange successively, which took the first step to build a carbon trading market. On June 7, 2009 165438+ 10/kloc-0, Shenzhen United Assets and Equity Exchange, Shenzhen International Energy and Environment Technology Promotion Center and RESET (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. jointly signed a memorandum of cooperation to initiate the establishment of the Asian Emissions Exchange in Shenzhen. 20 10 1 stated in the last issue that it will continue to pay attention to and explore the feasibility of carbon emissions futures trading, the controllability of trading risks and the reliability of risk monitoring system.

20 10 At the beginning of August, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Notice on Launching the Pilot Work of Low-carbon Provinces and Cities. In September, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) indicated that it was promoting the trading of carbon emission rights, and would solicit opinions from all parties on the management measures of voluntary emission reduction. This policy will be introduced in the near future.