PLANT-LEVEL EVALUATION OF CHINA’S NATIONAL EMISSIONS TRADING SCHEME: BENCHMARK MATTERS

Rong Ma and Haoqi Qian

Chapter 3 in Asian Mitigation:Insights, Mitigation Actions, Strategies and Policies for Asian Economies, 2025, pp 41-65 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: China’s national emission trading scheme (ETS) started operating in 2021 after four years of preparation. In the initial stage of national ETS, benchmarking approach is one of the hottest topics that have gained sufficient attention. For the reason that benchmarks will greatly affect the permits allocation results and thus affect the effectiveness of the carbon market. This paper attempts to investigate the impacts of the benchmark designs of China’s ETS by using plant-level data. Main results show that the current lax benchmark standards adopted by the national ETS will lead to excess surplus of permits. The whole carbon market will achieve market clearance only when the benchmark standards are set as high as the top 2% efficiency levels. If the carbon price is 200 yuan/ton, the annual trading volume will be 16.4 billion yuan and 13.2 billion yuan in extra will be spent on carbon offsetting for compliance. If the auction mechanism is introduced, the total market size will significantly increase. The auction revenue will exceed 300 billion yuan when 50% of permits are allocated through auction and will exceed 600 billion yuan when all permits are auctioned. These revenues can provide sufficient funds to accelerate China’s low-carbon transformation as well as improve social welfare.

Keywords: Climate Mitigation; Climate Policy Assessment; Climate Change Economics; DSGE; CGE; LEAP; Input-output Model; LCA Analysis; GHG Emissions; Greenhouse Gases; Regional Studies; Policy Measures; Asia; Paris Agreement; Emissions; Carbon; Carbon Emissions; Carbon Neutrality; Decarbonisation; Climate Goals; Mitigation Strategy; Emissions Trading Scheme; China; Green Energy; Global Warming; Climate Change; Carbon Footprint (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O53 Q52 Q54 Q56 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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