Achieving Nutrient Water Quality Goals: Bringing Market‐Like Principles to Water Quality Management*1

Abstract: Market‐like trading programs for water quality management begin with enforceable limits on the amount of the pollutant allowed in a watershed. Properly designed market‐like trading programs then create incentives for dischargers to reduce nutrient control costs over time by making pollution prevention innovations. However, the structure of the Clean Water Act can be a barrier to establishing market‐like trading programs. First, we describe the general features and advantages of market‐like trading programs. Then we offer practical suggestions for bringing market‐like design concepts to nutrient trading programs within the existing legal and regulatory setting.     

Economic and Ecological Rules for Water Quality Trading1

Horan, Richard D. and James S. Shortle, 2011. Economic and Ecological Rules for Water Quality Trading. Journal of the American Water Resources Association (JAWRA) 47(1):59‐69. DOI: 10.1111/j.1752‐1688.2010.00463.x Abstract: Emissions trading in textbook form uses markets to achieve pollution targets cost‐efficiently. This result is accomplished in markets that regulators can implement without knowing pollution abatement costs. The theoretical promise of emissions trading, along with real‐world success stories from air emissions trading, has led to initiatives to use trading for water pollution control. Yet, trading, particularly when it involves nonpoint sources of pollution, requires significant departures from the textbook concept. This paper explores how features of water quality problems affect the design of markets for water pollution control relative to textbook emissions markets. Three fundamental design tasks that regulators must address for pollution trading to achieve an environmental goal at low cost are examined: (1) defining the point and nonpoint commodities to be traded, (2) defining rules governing commodity exchange, and (3) setting caps on the commodity supplies so as to achieve an environmental target. We show that the way in which these tasks are optimally addressed for water quality markets differs significantly from the textbook model and its real‐world analogs. We also show that the fundamental appeal of emissions trading is lost in the case of realistic water quality markets, as market designs that reduce the costs of achieving water quality goals may no longer be implementable without the regulatory authority having information on abatement costs.     

Visual analysis to support regulators in electronic order book markets

Electronic markets and automated trading have resulted in a drastic increase in the quantity and complexity of regulatory data. Reconstructing the limit order book and analyzing order flow is an emerging challenge for financial regulators. New order types, intra-market behavior, and other exchange functionality further complicate the task of understanding market behavior at multiple levels. Data visualizations have proven to be a fundamental tool for building intuition and enabling exploratory data analysis in many fields. In this paper, we propose the incorporation of visualizations in the workflow of multiple financial regulatory roles, including market surveillance, enforcement and supporting academic research.     

国际碳排放权交易模式的更替发展与协同优化路径

实现碳中和是各国应对气候变化的共同选择。碳市场作为以碳排放权交易为核心的市场机制是加速全球碳排放目标实现的重要途径之一。尽管当前全球碳市场的发展仍呈现区域性和碎片化状态,但随着能源危机的加剧,极端气候灾难的不确定性增多,未来通过碳市场领域的国际合作实现全球碳市场的协同以应对气候变化仍是大势所趋。本文试图通过对国际碳市场进行回顾和类型化总结,并就《巴黎协定》下国际碳交易模式的协同困境从技术、制度和参与程度三个维度开展分析。作者认为,如欲加快全球碳交易的协同进程,应尽快完善国际碳交易中的技术适用细节,提升碳交易相关制度的适用力度,扩大碳交易相关制度的适用范围,加强发展中国家的碳市场的基础建设,拓展发展中国家碳交易市场建设支持来源,最终建立全球碳价格统一机制。提前布局研究碳市场的跨境连接方案对于中国而言极具现实意义,本文最后对中国参与全球碳交易市场的国际合作前景作出了展望。     

我国土地市场公开交易存在的问题与对策——以徐州市土地市场服务中心为例

以徐州市为例,分析了土地公开交易中在土地需求主体、政府调控、出让方式、交易场所、交易制度和信息更新等方面存在亟需解决的问题,并提出坚持“走出去,引进来”、实行地产策划、加大“净地”出让、推行“网上竞价”、创新制度和土地市场信息系、统等具体,可行的措施。研究认为,我国土地市场建设还不够成熟,建立规范化土地市场是一个长期、复杂的过程,需要长时间实践、探索。     

自愿减排项目碳泄漏：内涵、类别及应对

自愿减排项目是碳排放交易市场抵消机制的运行载体,灵活的自愿减排抵消机制是碳排放交易市场的补充,对应对全球气候变化问题具有重要意义。碳泄漏,作为严重影响抵消项目减排效率的热点问题值得关注。目前,中国已形成较大规模的自愿减排市场,截至2018年底,国家发展改革委共签发了约7200万tCO_2当量减排量,我国在建立健全自愿减排抵消市场机制的过程中,需要把握项目碳泄漏的负外部性这一实质,厘清其运行机理并积极应对。本文旨在系统阐述该问题,并为进一步实现抵消项目减排潜力提供思路和方向:从自愿减排项目碳泄漏的内涵与定义出发,首先对项目碳泄漏的分类进行梳理,并依据产生途径的不同重点分析了活动转移排放、生命周期、市场路径、生态以及技术泄漏的作用机制、影响因素及其相应的研究方法;其次从具体项目应用、系统项目应用和宏观应用三个层面讨论了应对自愿减排项目碳泄漏问题的管理对策;最后结合我国自愿减排抵消市场的实际情况,建议未来抵消项目碳泄漏的应对和管理应在分门别类对其概念进行精准定义的基础上将解决措施的成本效益考虑在内,此外,在评估泄漏量时需要同时测算不同类型的碳泄漏,探究其协同效应以免高估其泄漏程度。     

Preferences for dealing with environmental problems: an empirical study of managers in three mainland Chinese cities

This study examines managerial preferences for various policy mechanisms commonly used to address environmental problems using a sample of 653 Chinese managers from firms in Beijing, Dalian and Guangzhou. Overall, these managers appeared to favor regulatory instruments, placing somewhat less faith in market and communicative instruments. However, all measures appear to have ample support within each subgroup. In addition, the influence of two situational factors on these preferences was investigated--the immediacy of environmental impact and diffusion of responsibility. The results of the study indicate that these two factors interact in explaining managerial preferences, but only for the use of market mechanisms.     

碳排放交易体系的政策灵活性:国际经验及启示

在《联合国气候变化框架公约》和《京都议定书》的背景下,越来越多的国家开始关注全球气候变暖的问题。考虑到碳排放交易体系比碳税更具有政治可行性,不少国家或地区开始实施碳排放交易体系,以最低的减排成本来达到温室气体减排目标。然而,采用碳排放交易体系,其排放总量是固定的,而减排成本是不确定的,可能会出现由于政策或外部冲击而产生的配额价格异常波动的现象。因此,为确保碳排放交易体系的成本有效性,政策灵活性十分重要。在理想情况下,碳排放市场具有完全的时间灵活性(包括长期的履约期、自由的配额储存与预借)和空间灵活性(即建立全球碳市场),这将对增强市场流动性、降低减排成本、缓解价格波动起到重要的作用。然而,由于政策设计需要考虑更多因素,实际上理想状态很难达到。本文将对国外碳排放交易体系的政策灵活性设计进行较为系统的分析和比较,尤其关注履约期的长短、配额的跨期使用、配额的抵消、区域碳市场连接等方面的具体政策设计,这对我国在7个省市进行碳排放交易试点以及今后建立全国性的碳排放交易体系有较强的借鉴意义。     

对湖南省排污权交易的分析与思考

随着环境问题的日渐凸显,用市场机制代替行政处罚成为降低治污成本的重要举措,也是创新社会管理的重要手段。从优化环境资源配置、激发企业积极治污、实现政府职能转换三个方面阐释了湖南省实施排污权交易的现实意义;分析了制约排污权交易市场发展的主要因素;并针对其制约因素,从建立严格规范的法规体系、行之有效的市场机制、实时有效的监控系统、透明的信息披露制度方面,提出了完善和壮大湖南省排污权交易市场的对策建议。     

A Mixed Bag: Assessmentof Market Performance and Firm Trading Behaviour in the NOx Reclaim Programme

Tradable permit markets have become an increasingly popular tool to address environmental policy problems. This paper describes and evaluates the performance of the Regional Clean Air Incentives Market (RECLAIM) that started operating in Southern California at the beginning of 1994. In analysing overall market performance as well as industry and firm specific information,we find strong evidence for uncertainty influencing market participation during the first two years. Furthermore we find evidence for flexibility-induced abatement cost savings as well as a potential business cycle effect on trading behaviour.Our findings emphasizethe importanceof institutional features of trading programmes.     

Watershed-based point sources permitting strategy and dynamic permit-trading analysis

Permit-trading policy in a total maximum daily load (TMDL) program may provide an additional avenue to produce environmental benefit, which closely approximates what would be achieved through a command and control approach, with relatively lower costs. One of the important considerations that might affect the effective trading mechanism is to determine the dynamic transaction prices and trading ratios in response to seasonal changes of assimilative capacity in the river. Advanced studies associated with multi-temporal spatially varied trading ratios among point sources to manage water pollution hold considerable potential for industries and policy makers alike. This paper aims to present an integrated simulation and optimization analysis for generating spatially varied trading ratios and evaluating seasonal transaction prices accordingly. It is designed to configure a permit-trading structure basin-wide and provide decision makers with a wealth of cost-effective, technology-oriented, risk-informed, and community-based management strategies. The case study, seamlessly integrating a QUAL2E simulation model with an optimal waste load allocation (WLA) scheme in a designated TMDL study area, helps understand the complexity of varying environmental resources values over space and time. The pollutants of concern in this region, which are eligible for trading, mainly include both biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) and ammonia-nitrogen (NH3-N). The problem solution, as a consequence, suggests an array of waste load reduction targets in a well-defined WLA scheme and exhibits a dynamic permit-trading framework among different sub-watersheds in the study area. Research findings gained in this paper may extend to any transferable dynamic-discharge permit (TDDP) program worldwide.     

“双碳”目标下我国海洋碳汇交易的发展机制研究

海洋具备高效的固碳能力和巨大的碳汇潜力，完善的海洋碳汇交易机制是我国应对全球变化、实现碳中和的重要途径。本文在总结国内外海洋碳汇相关政策与实践情况的基础上，探讨了我国海洋碳汇交易的动力机制、实现机制和保障机制，旨在为未来海洋碳汇交易的政策制定提供理论支撑。首先，海洋碳汇交易的实现需要以政策环境作为推力，利益动机作为引力，社会责任作为压力。其次，我国海洋碳汇交易的发展总体上可以分为以自愿市场为主的探索阶段、自愿市场到履约市场的过渡阶段和以履约市场为主的成熟阶段，不同阶段各利益相关方的作用和实践中的关键点需要加以分析。最后，在法律保障方面要注意将“自上而下”的顶层设计和“自下而上”的基层探索相结合；在资金方面可以形成以公共财政为主、多渠道融资为辅的资金保障；在技术方面需要组建专业机构开展科学与政策的相关研究工作。     

二氧化碳捕集技术发展动态研究

介绍了近年来新兴的二氧化碳捕集技术路线和国内外的有关研究项目。通过研究由清洁发展机制延伸出来的碳交易及其市场表明，在未来的几十年中，碳交易将成为最大的贸易商品，并且能够减少环境污染和产生较高的利益。     

山西省排污权交易体系改进设计

本文在山西省排污权交易工作现有交易机制、政策设计与实践成果的基础上,分析现有排污权交易实施过程中存在的主要问题,并结合"十三五"时期国家对排污权交易工作的总体要求,提出山西省排污交易体系的改进设计建议。通过改进排污权初始分配方式和排污权交易模式,制定活跃排污权交易市场的相关政策,强化市场与政府的对接,探索山西省地方立法,扩展山西省排污权交易管理平台等,逐步完善交易制度建设、监管体系建设、信息统计体系建设,深化排污权交易支持下的山西省总量减排及环境监管能力建设,构建管理规范、交易顺畅的排污指标交易市场,支持排污权交易工作在山西省的全面推广与实施。     

Efficient regional ozone control strategies for the eastern United States

When environmental regulatory bodies formulate control plans, it is incumbent upon them to try to achieve the stated goals in an economically efficient manner. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is presently developing regulations to limit the influence of transported ozone on areas that are having difficulty meeting the ambient air quality standard. EPA has proposed stringent control measures for emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) in 22 states of the eastern US. The strategy would necessitate the use of selective catalytic reduction or similar high-performance technology on almost all major power plants in the region, as well as extensive controls on industrial sources. This paper suggests several alternative approaches that would achieve equal or better environmental improvement at lower cost. These include focusing control efforts on sources closer to the North-east Corridor, pushing controls on close-in sources to a higher level of technology performance, and relaxing the stringency of requirements for states remote from ozone problem areas. All the approaches examined are two to three times more cost-effective than EPA's proposed approach in the North-east Corridor.     

排污交易权理论与实践探讨

排污权交易是一种市场激励机制。本文通过对排污权交易进行理论和实践的分析和探讨，提出在我国实施总量控制条件下的排污权交易是切实可行的，其关键在于建立起完整、合理的排污权交易市场体系。     

International commodity transactions : The role of the commodity futures trading commission

The creation of so-called ‘financial’ futures contracts in the USA has spurred the growth of futures trading by other countries, including the UK. The increased expansion of commodity futures trading has also led to heightened regulatory concerns throughout the world. The USA has been especially aggressive in asserting jurisdiction and establishing regulatory controls over persons dealing in the US markets. The complexity of the regulations adopted is compounded by the fact that they are often directed at specific instruments, while similar instruments are not given comparable regulatory treatment. This article discusses the growth of futures trading worldwide, as well as regulatory concerns and requirements existing in the USA.     

“排污权”和“碳排放权”交易的减污降碳协同效应研究——基于污染治理和政策管理的双重视角

全面系统地评估排污权交易和碳排放权交易的减污降碳协同效应,对于进一步发挥应对气候变化和大气污染治理的协同效应、推进全国统一生态环境市场建设具有重要意义。本文基于污染治理和政策管理的双重视角,采用多时点双重差分和倾向得分匹配,分别检验排污权交易和碳排放权交易的减污和降碳效应;并在此基础上,研究三种政策情景下（排污权交易、碳排放权交易以及组合政策）的协同减排效应差异。研究表明,从污染治理视角,排污权交易和碳排放权交易均显著降低了二氧化硫和二氧化碳排放量,实现了减污降碳的协同效应;从政策协同管理视角,在减少二氧化硫污染方面,组合政策比各类政策的单独实施更为有效;在降低二氧化碳排放方面,碳排放权交易比排污权交易和组合政策更为有效。因此,在推进气候变化应对和大气污染治理机制融合的进程中,应有所侧重地推进碳排放权交易和排污权交易组合使用。     

电力行业实行二氧化硫排污交易浅析

本文介绍了排污权交易在国内外的发展进程及现状。分析了我国电力行业实行二氧化硫排污交易的可行性，同时指出该交易体系目前存在的初始排污权分配、环境公平性、交易市场以及政府职能等问题；建议我国应在借鉴国外成功经验的基础上，结合我国实际情况逐步建立二氧化硫排污权交易的完整的市场体制，并完善相关政策，扩大交易范围。     

A Recourse‐Based Interval Fuzzy Programming Model for Point‐Nonpoint Source Effluent Trading under Uncertainty

In this study, a recourse‐based interval fuzzy programming (RIFP) model is developed for tackling uncertainties expressed as fuzzy, interval, and/or probabilistic forms in an effluent trading program. It can incorporate preregulated water‐pollution control policies directly into its optimization process, such that an effective linkage between environmental regulations and economic implications (i.e., penalties) caused by improper policies due to uncertainty existence can be provided. The RIFP model is applied to point‐nonpoint source effluent trading of the Xiangxi River in China. The efficiency of trading efforts between water quality improvement and net system benefit under different degrees of satisfying discharge limits is analyzed. The results are able to help support (1) formulation of water‐pollution control strategies under various economic objectives and system‐reliability constraints, (2) selection of the desired effluent trading pattern for point and nonpoint sources, and (3) generation of tradeoffs among system benefit, satisfaction degree, and pollutant mitigation under multiple uncertainties. Compared with the traditional regulatory approaches, the results demonstrate that the water‐pollution control program can be performed more cost‐effectively through trading than nontrading.