Iron and steel industry officially included in China’s carbon emissions trading market

On March 26, China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) held a regular press conference in March.

Pei Xiaofei, spokesperson of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that in accordance with the deployment requirements of the State Council, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment released the National Carbon Emission Trading Market Coverage of Iron and Steel, Cement, and Aluminum Smelting Sectors (hereinafter referred to as the “Program”), which marked the first time that the National Carbon Emission Trading Market expanded its coverage of the industry (hereinafter referred to as the Expansion) and formally entered the implementation stage.

At present, the national carbon emissions trading market covers only 2,200 key emission units in the power generation industry, covering more than 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions annually. The iron and steel, cement and aluminum smelting industries are large carbon emitters, emitting about 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent annually, accounting for more than 20% of the total national carbon dioxide emissions. After this expansion, the national carbon emissions trading market is expected to add 1,500 key emission units, covering more than 60% of the country's total carbon dioxide emissions, and expanding the types of greenhouse gases covered to three categories: carbon dioxide, carbon tetrafluoride, and carbon hexafluoride.

The inclusion of the three industries in the carbon market management can accelerate the elimination of backward production capacity through “incentivizing the advanced and restraining the backward”, and promote the industry to shift from the traditional path of “high carbon dependence” to the new track of “low carbon competitiveness”. It can accelerate the transformation of the industry from the traditional path of “high carbon dependence” to the new track of “low carbon competitiveness”, accelerate the innovation and application of low carbon technology, help to get out of the ‘involutional’ competition mode, and continuously improve the “gold, new and green” content of the industry's development. In addition, the carbon market will also give rise to new industrial opportunities. With the development and improvement of the carbon market, emerging fields such as carbon verification, carbon monitoring, carbon consulting and carbon finance will see rapid development.