The Impact of Uncertainty on Banking Behavior: Evidence from the US Sulfur Dioxide Emissions Allowance Trading Program

In this paper, we study empirically whether uncertainty has an influence on trade in the US sulfur dioxide allowances market. In particular, we investigate the role of uncertainty on banking behavior. To do this, we introduce a tractable, structural model of trading permits under uncertainty. The model establishes a relation between banking behavior and risk preferences, especially prudence in the Kimball (1990) sense. We then test this model using data on allowances, for utilities submitted to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Acid Rain Program, carried over from one year to the next. Evidence is found of imprudence, namely, utilities bank permits in order to favor higher profits. Another finding is that larger utilities do not adopt behavior significantly different from that of smaller ones. This paper was presented at the “International Workshop on Uncertainty in Greenhouse Gas Inventories: Verification, Compliance & Trading” in Warsaw, Poland, September 2004, under the title “Portfolio Management of Emissions Permits and Prudence Behavior.”     

Compliance and Emissions Trading under the Kyoto Protocol: Rules for Uncertain Inventories

A solution is proposed for proving compliance with emission targets and for emissions trading in the event of uncertainties in reported emission inventories. The solution is based on the undershooting concept, from which the mathematical conditions for both proving compliance with a risk α and calculating effective emissions for trading are derived. Based on the reported emission units, the number of permits granted is reduced in proportion to the uncertainty in the inventory. A country whose inventory has higher uncertainty is thereby allotted fewer permits than a country with the same inventory but smaller uncertainty.     

中国碳交易市场发展现状及对策分析

中国强制碳交易标的物的确定、排放权的分配、排放源的监测核查等制度设计尚不明晰,也未出台温室气体交易活动的相关管理办法,碳减排体系尚未真正确立。碳市场处于初建期、探索期。通过对碳交易活动的背景、实质、运行机制以及国内碳交易现状的分析,结合应对气候变化的国际进展和国内政策行动对中国碳交易市场发展对策进行了探讨。     

清洁发展机制与中国碳排放交易市场的构建

清洁发展机制是《京都议定书》创设的实现全球碳减排目标的三大灵活机制之一,为我国的可持续发展作出了重大贡献,但其在我国运行中存在的问题也对我国参与国际碳市场和构建国内碳市场带来了风险与障碍.针对于此,本文对中国清洁发展机制项目的类型、数量、注册、签发等情况进行对比,发现我国虽然项目众多,但发展极不平衡.在此基础上,分析了中国清洁发展机制存在的主要问题,包括法律保障机制缺失,项目减排潜力发挥不充分,缺乏对转让技术的科学评估等.然后,通过介绍国际碳排放交易市场发展的不确定性和在2012年“后京都时期”的发展趋势,揭示了中国在这一过程中所承担的项目投资减少、成本增加等市场风险以及“碳泄漏”等环境风险.针对上述问题和风险,本文提出以现有清洁发展机制经验为基础构建中国国内碳排放交易市场的基本思路,即建立以排放交易法律体系为基础,以自愿碳交易市场构建为起点,以完善的监督管理体系为保障的中国碳排放交易机制.     

企业内部碳交易市场探析

随着气候变化问题的加剧,企业逐渐认识到将气候变化问题上升到企业战略高度的重要性.在企业的生产运营过程中有效减少温室气体排放量,关系到企业的可持续发展.但目前企业自主减排的动力不足,这不仅需要外部激励,更需要企业具有内生性动力.而只有依靠企业运行机制的修整和改良才能在根本上激励企业减排的自发性.企业内部碳交易市场的构建就能起到这个作用——它将市场机制引入企业,基于“总量管制和排放交易”理念,建立企业内部碳交易市场,在企业内部各部门之间进行温室气体排放权的重新分配和交易.它具体包括三个互为联系的子市场,即碳信用市场、碳项目市场和现碳交易市场,各子市场的良好运作也需要三重保障,即减排基金的合理构建、产权的明晰和监督机制的完善.通过构建内部碳交易市场,实现温室气体排放权在企业内部的市场化运作,提高温室气体排放权的利用效率,从而减少企业的温室气体排放量,降低企业的生产运营成本,保障企业抓住气候变化带来的战略机遇,规避风险,实现可持续发展.     

从"珠三角火力发电厂排污交易试验计划"看粤港区域环境管理制度创新机遇

总结排污交易在中国的发展历程,展望"珠三角火力发电厂排污交易试验计划实施方案"实施,粤港区域环境管理将面临着一次新的挑战,也是区域环境保护制度创新的重大机遇.     

Effective EU and Member State policies for stimulating CCS

Although CO₂ capture and storage (CCS) is widely recognised as an option to mitigate climate change, consistent and effective EU policies to advance CCS are still absent. This paper discusses policy instruments for advancing large-scale deployment of CCS in the European Union, and evaluates them in a multi-criteria analysis. The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EU-ETS) is a cost-effective instrument for limiting greenhouse gas emissions, but it is questionable whether its currently limited time horizon and short-trading periods will lead to substantial CCS diffusion. Complementary policies at the EU and the Member State level may repair this and provide sufficient incentives for CCS. Potential policies include financial instruments such as investment subsidies, a feed-in scheme, or a CO₂ price guarantee, as well as a CCS mandate or a low-carbon portfolio. These policy options differ with respect to their environmental effectiveness, possible interaction with the EU-ETS, costs and financial risk involved, and their competition with other mitigation options. Interactions between Member State policies and the EU-ETS are smaller in scope than those of EU-wide policies, but they are more likely to lead to displacement of financial resources from other low-carbon technologies. In addition, national policies may pose a significant part of the financial risk of CCS operations with Member States, reducing the operator's incentive to innovate. Overall, structural policies at the EU level, such as a mandate or a low-carbon portfolio standard would be more conducive for realising large-scale deployment of CCS across the EU as well as more acceptable to environmental organisations.     

碳排放权初始分配方法与问题分析

为了有效减缓气候变化对人类社会可持续发展的威胁,积极有效控制二氧化碳的排放刻不容缓。排污权交易理论的提出与发展为低成本高效率地解决气候变化问题提供了可能。在深入研究排污权交易理论以及对比初始排污权分配的方法基础上,结合国内排污权交易市场与碳金融市场的发展情况,为国内构建成熟的排污权交易市场提出建议。     

Energy and economic impacts of an international multi-regional carbon market

The establishment of a global multi-regional carbon market is considered to be a cost effective approach to facilitate global emission abatement and has been widely concerned.The ongoing planned linkage between the European Union’s carbon market and a new emission trading system in Australia in 2015 would be an important attempt to the practice of building up an international carbon market across different regions.To understand the abatement effect of such a global carbon market and to study its energy and economic impact on different market participants,this article adopts a global dynamic computable general equilibrium model with a detailed representation of the interactions between energy and economic systems.Our model includes 20 economic sectors and 19 regions,and describes in detail 17 energy technologies.Bundled with fossil fuel consumptions,the emission permits are considered to be essential inputs in each of the production and consumption activities in the economic system to simulate global carbon market policies.Carbon emission permits are endogenously set in the model,and can be traded between sectors and regions.Considering the current development of the global carbon market,this study takes 2020 as the study period.Four scenarios(reference scenario,independent carbon market scenario,Europe Union（EUh-Australia scenario,and China-EU-Australia scenario） are designed to evaluate the impact of the global carbon market involving China,the EU,and Australia.We find that the carbon price in the three countries varies a lot,from $32/tCO₂ in Australia,to $17.5/tCO₂ in the EU,and to $10/tCO₂ in China.Though the relative emission reduction（3%） in China is lower than that in the EU（9%） and Australia（18%）,the absolute emission reduction in China is far greater than that in the EU and Australia.When China is included in the carbon market,which already includes the EU and Australia,the prevailing global carbon price falls from $22 per ton carbon dioxide（CO₂） to $12/tCO₂,due to the relatively lower abatement cost in China.Seventy-one percent of the EU’s and eighty-one percent of Australia’s domestic reduction burden would be transferred to China,increasing 0.03%of the EU’s and 0.06%of Australia’s welfare.The emission constraint improves the energy efficiency of China’s industry sector by 1.4%,reduces coal consumption by3.3%,and increases clean energy by 3.5%.     

《京都》15年后:分阶段减排政策与“绿色悖论”问题

低碳经济的政策分析,通常囿于单一国家层面的局部均衡结果,较少考虑到全球整体行动的外部影响,但从《联合国气候变化框架公约》建立以来的全球一致减排行动,却产生了一些意料之外的负面效果。本文通过梳理《京都议定书》签订以来,全球低碳经济合作中遇到的新挑战,以及碳交易市场的建设状况,采用制度分析与新古典框架下的市场均衡分析方法,讨论了全球一致减排行动所触发的"绿色悖论"问题。研究发现,造成"绿色悖论"的主要原因,一方面是由于国际合作存在制度设计上的缺陷,《京都议定书》及其关键性的附件一,将重点放在如何限制发达工业国的减排设计上,但却忽视了发展中国家在协议期内有可能出现的增排问题,以及发达国家向发展中国家污染转移的碳泄漏等问题;另一方面,当对不可再生资源的使用征税、以及对其替代品进行补贴时,将会导致在当前期对于化石能源的加速开采,并可能导致对同时期的化石燃料替代品的其他可再生资源的开采速度也大幅度加快,造成了在双重加速开采下的全球绿色福利损失以及CO2排放量的急剧升高,化石能源消费与温室气体排放面临到比协议签署前更为严峻,甚至与全球合作减排框架的设计初衷相悖的结果。研究结果表明,非全局性的减排公约和分阶段的减排政策,是造成"绿色悖论"现象的重要条件,缺少了大量发展中国家和一些重要工业国的缔约,使得负面的环境外部性难以克服;同时,减排任务和责任有所区别的分阶段设计,会把在未来行动期内可预见到的更高地化石能源使用成本转嫁到当前的行动期,造成短时间内资源与环境的迅速破坏。但本文的研究也表明,社会最优经济与对可再生能源进行补贴是克服"绿色悖论"现象的两条可行路径,且需要有与其相匹配的政府政策的支持。由此,本文的主要政策建议是,中国需要加强在国际气候公约中的影响力,提升自身话语权;以碳税政策作为发展低碳经济制度设计的主要政策工具;加快技术进步、提高能源使用效率,对于可再生能源研发进行补贴;根据国情不断优化碳税税率,并适时调整与其相匹配的新能源补贴等相关政策。