Keywords: carbon emissions, carbon trading, carbon assets, carbon market management system
With the frequent occurrence of global warming and extreme climate, the greenhouse effect is becoming more and more serious. Seeking an efficient and low-carbon sustainable economic development model has become a hot spot of world economic development. The international community has gradually reached a consensus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 1992 The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development adopted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; The Kyoto Protocol of 1997 further stipulates the emission reduction obligations of developed countries; The Copenhagen Protocol on February 5th, 2009 is another epoch-making global climate agreement after the Kyoto Protocol. The international climate politics has been reshuffled, and China has also stepped into the ranks of "responsibility" for carbon emission reduction.
At present, China is the country with the largest greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 22.3% of the global greenhouse gas emissions in 20 10, so it faces enormous pressure from international public opinion to reduce emissions. Our government has also promoted low-carbon development to an important strategic height. At the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference in 2009, China promised the world that by 2020, the carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP would be 40-45% lower than that in 2005; In 20 12, the State Council issued the Twelfth Five-Year Plan for Controlling Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Guo Fa [201] No.41), which stipulated that by 20 15, China's carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP would be 20/kloc. Subsequently, the State Council issued a series of policies to promote energy conservation and emission reduction, and made great achievements. However, China's economy is in a high-speed development stage, with the acceleration of urbanization, shortage of resources and lack of effective control of pollutant discharge, and there is still a long way to go before the development mode of low-carbon economy.
For domestic enterprises, especially those with high energy consumption and high emission, such as electric power, chemical industry, cement, steel, flat glass and nonferrous metals (electrolytic aluminum and magnesium smelting), the arrival of low-carbon era not only brings unprecedented impact to their traditional economic model, but also gives enterprises new responsibilities and missions. With the gradual establishment and improvement of the domestic carbon emission trading market, carbon emission will become one of the goals of total control of enterprises, and carbon emission rights will also become a commodity and a special asset of enterprises. Therefore, it is imperative for enterprises to establish low-carbon awareness, combine their own carbon assets, build a sound low-carbon management system and develop a low-carbon economy.
First, the basic concept of carbon emission management system
Carbon emission right refers to the right to distribute carbon dioxide to various countries, regions, provinces, cities or enterprises through certain distribution methods under the condition of a certain global carbon emission, and allow them to emit a certain amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In the form of expression, carbon emission right can be expressed as the allowable amount of carbon emission or tons of carbon dioxide that can be discharged in a certain period of time. The basic characteristics of carbon emission rights are scarcity, compulsion, exclusiveness and tradeability. [ 1]
Carbon trading takes carbon dioxide emission rights as commodities, thus forming the trading of carbon dioxide emission rights. The basic principle of carbon trading is that one party of the contract obtains greenhouse gas emission reduction by paying the other party, and the buyer can use the purchased emission reduction to slow down the greenhouse effect and achieve its emission reduction target. The trading market is called the carbon market. Carbon trading can be divided into quota trading and project trading according to different trading principles. Quota trading is a kind of trading based on the "total control and trading" system, which refers to the transfer of emission reduction quotas between trading entities. The carbon project manager plans the total carbon emission of the country (region) in a certain period and distributes it to each participant. When the total emission of participants exceeds the upper limit, they need to purchase emission permits from other enterprises. Project-based trading is to obtain greenhouse gas emission reduction quotas through cooperation of emission reduction projects. [2]
The basis of carbon emissions trading theory is emission right. When carbon emissions are linked with finance and finance, this right can be regarded as a valuable property right, and then evolved into a special asset form-carbon assets. Carbon assets are all tangible and intangible assets embodied or hidden in an object with value attributes, which may be suitable for storage, circulation or wealth transformation in the field of low-carbon economy. Carbon assets include not only today's assets, but also future assets; It includes not only the assets of clean development mechanism (CDM) projects, but also all the year-on-year and quarter-on-quarter value-added generated by the implementation of low-carbon strategy. The financial characteristics of carbon assets are that enterprises get additional products, not loans, but assets that can be sold and stored at the same time; Due to the marketization of carbon market, the price of carbon assets fluctuates, and due to the limitation of total emissions, the price of carbon increases year by year in the long run. [3]
Carbon inventory refers to the calculation of greenhouse gases directly or indirectly emitted by enterprises in all aspects of their production activities in a certain period of time by following a series of standard methods and principles. Greenhouse GHG protocol or ISO 14064 greenhouse gas certification standard is widely used in the world. The former is jointly formulated by the World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), including two related but independent standards-enterprise accounting and reporting standards and project quantification standards; The latter is formulated by the International Standardization Association (ISO) to provide a set of tools for monitoring, quantifying and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. [4]
Second, the enterprise carbon emission management system framework construction
(A) the system of policies and regulations
Policy and regulation system is the basic guarantee of enterprise carbon management system. Enterprises should study and analyze the development situation of international carbon market and relevant policies of domestic carbon trading mechanism, track the progress of domestic carbon trading pilot, and formulate carbon management strategies and rules and regulations in line with their own development. For some super-large enterprises, it is necessary to formulate carbon emission management plans, find out their financial resources, uniformly plan and deploy the management of carbon assets and carbon emission trading within enterprises, and formulate a series of management measures such as low-carbon strategy implementation system, carbon emission monitoring system, supervision system, carbon asset property rights system, and carbon emission trading reward and punishment system. For example, Measures for Assessment and Evaluation of Low-carbon Development of Enterprises, Statistical Reporting System of Carbon Assets of Enterprises, Measures for Management of Carbon Assets Trading, etc. And in the process of practice, explore the formulation of low-carbon technical standards and study carbon emission reduction methods. In a word, the construction of enterprise carbon emission management strategy, rules and regulations system is a process from whole to part, from rough to detailed, not overnight, and needs to be gradually improved in the process of low-carbon management.
(2) carbon emission management organization
Enterprise carbon emission management organization is the executive organization of enterprise carbon emission reduction and carbon asset management, which can effectively implement enterprise low-carbon strategy and realize enterprise low-carbon goal; Carbon emission and carbon asset management is a highly professional work, involving carbon emission accounting, carbon asset management and trading and other professional and technical work. Therefore, in order to realize the centralized and effective management of carbon assets of enterprises, a special unified management institution for carbon assets and carbon emissions should be established. Coordinate low-carbon development work, set up work leading groups and subordinate enterprises' carbon emission management law enforcement agencies, and establish top-down departmental coordination mechanism and feedback mechanism. Clear division of labor, clear responsibilities and coordination are the keys to ensure the efficient operation of carbon emission management system. The post setting and personnel arrangement of the organization should be determined, and the corresponding responsibilities and authorities should be clarified. Its responsibilities mainly include: studying and formulating carbon management related systems and development strategies; Strengthen external communication, actively communicate with relevant government departments, and strive for more quotas; Carry out enterprise carbon inventory pilot and census management, formulate enterprise quota allocation scheme, and study carbon asset management model; Actively promote the trading of carbon emission rights of enterprises and closely follow the progress of international and domestic carbon trading markets; Establish and maintain enterprise carbon management information system. (C) Financial management system of carbon assets
First, a carbon asset account should be established. In order to clearly calculate the stock and flow of carbon assets of enterprises, in the traditional environmental accounting, a secondary account of carbon assets should be set up under the general ledger of environmental assets. In view of the economic business of certified emission reduction generated by enterprises buying and selling clean development projects, a detailed account of "carbon emission rights" can be set up on the basis of the second-level account of "carbon assets", in which the borrower records the increase of carbon emission rights and the lender records the decrease of carbon emission rights, and the debit balance at the end of the period represents the existing amount of carbon emission rights of enterprises; Second, establish a carbon responsibility account. Enterprises should set up a secondary account of "carbon liabilities" under the general ledger account of "environmental liabilities", and make detailed accounting according to different sources and types of liabilities, such as "low-carbon financial liabilities" and "carbon dioxide emission tax payable". It is used to reflect the fair value change of low-carbon financial liabilities undertaken by enterprises and the carbon tax paid to the state due to greenhouse gas emissions; Third, prepare a carbon balance sheet. Improve the traditional balance sheet, calculate and measure the economic benefits or obligations formed by transactions or events related to carbon assets, and internalize them, that is, form a "carbon balance sheet" aimed at strengthening the management of carbon assets of enterprises; [5] Finally, build an enterprise carbon budget accounting system. In 2009, Britain began to implement the "carbon budget" budget. Similarly, we can construct internal financial carbon budget accounting according to the principles of financial budget accounting management, making it an important tool for carbon emission management. Scientifically use relevant technical methods to collect, sort out, calculate and analyze carbon data in the process of economic activities at all levels within enterprises, so as to measure, evaluate and predict economic activities, predict carbon emissions of enterprises, determine carbon emission reduction targets of enterprises, improve the use efficiency of carbon assets of enterprises, and achieve the purpose of increasing income and reducing expenditure.
(4) carbon emission information management platform
The key to realize the enterprise's carbon emission reduction target and decompose the emission reduction index into all production and operation links of the enterprise is to master the current situation of enterprise's carbon emission reduction. Therefore, it is necessary to collect and count the carbon emissions of enterprises, establish a carbon emission data management system and information platform, and update the database in real time according to the emissions. The method of data acquisition can be online automatic monitoring system or manual input. The carbon emission information management platform mainly includes the following functions: data collection, statistical analysis, query function, emission level evaluation and identification, prediction and early warning function, decision support and transaction management. In particular, large group enterprises involve different industries, and the carbon assets and carbon emission information management system is conducive to the procedural, standardized and unified carbon accounting and reporting of enterprises, and to achieve efficient operation and management. After mastering the current situation of carbon emissions within the enterprise, first, a small trading system of carbon emissions is formed within the enterprise, and the quotas and certified emission reductions within the enterprise are uniformly distributed to balance the internal demand and supply as much as possible; And we can participate in external market transactions properly, buy a certain quota storage when the market price is low, and sell some surplus quotas when the market price is high, thus reducing the overall carbon emission cost and even gaining extra profits. (V) Support service system
The supporting service system of carbon emission management system includes professional consulting institutions, third-party verification institutions, carbon emission management IT information system supporting institutions, expert consultation and professional training services. Enterprise carbon inventory is the key step of carbon emission management. The carbon inventory procedure has established an effective mechanism to quantify, monitor and report greenhouse gases, thus reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of enterprises. According to the requirements of China's current pilot trading markets of "two provinces and five cities" (Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Chongqing, Guangdong and Hubei), such as the Measures for the Administration of Carbon Emissions Trading, the Guide to Accounting and Reporting of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, and the Requirements of Greenhouse Gas Verification and Reporting Process, the trading pilot enterprises included in the pilot areas must participate in the trading and submit greenhouse gas emission reports and verification reports. Professional consulting organizations may be entrusted to assist in greenhouse gas monitoring and accounting, and prepare reports. Finally, a third-party verification agency will verify the greenhouse gas emission report and issue a verification report. Outside the experimental area, enterprises participating in the voluntary emission reduction trading mechanism also need the support of carbon emission accounting, reporting and accounting services. In addition, the establishment of enterprise carbon emission management information system also needs professional IT software support, carbon management personnel training services, expert consultation and decision support.
(6) supervision and management mechanism
A sound supervision and management mechanism is an important guarantee for the effective implementation of carbon emission management. Supervise the implementation of enterprises' low-carbon strategies, laws and regulations, and fairly and reasonably determine the total amount of carbon emissions and the initial allocation of carbon emission rights of various departments within enterprises; Supervise the total carbon emissions and emission reduction standards of all production and operation links; In addition, it is necessary to supervise the internal or external carbon trading process of enterprises in order to maintain the order of carbon trading market and prevent illegal trading; Gradually establish a reward and punishment system, formulate reasonable reward and punishment quotas, play an incentive role for enterprises, encourage enterprises to adopt advanced low-carbon emission reduction technologies and measures, and actively achieve carbon emission reduction targets.
Third, the enterprise carbon emission management process
The carbon emission management process of an enterprise is shown in figure 1. Enterprise carbon emission monitoring refers to a series of technical and management measures, including measurement, data collection, recording and measurement, taken by enterprises in the measurement process of carbon emission activities in a certain period of time in accordance with the relevant provisions of the relevant carbon emission reporting guidelines. Statistical analysis is the analysis and processing of monitoring data as the basic data of carbon emission report; Carbon emission report is the behavior of enterprises to calculate the carbon dioxide emissions generated by production and business activities in a certain period of time in accordance with relevant rules and form a normative report; Carbon emission verification According to the relevant standards of enterprise carbon emission certification or certification work manual, entrust a third-party certification body to audit the carbon emission report and generate a certification report; In addition, under the coordination of carbon assets policy system, quota target, financial management and supervision mechanism, the carbon emission information management platform can operate normally. Quota target management means that enterprises distribute annual carbon emission quotas (stock quotas) to production and business units at all levels through the registration information management platform according to the carbon emission quotas allocated by the state and their own historical carbon dioxide emissions; For newly-built fixed assets investment projects, carbon emissions are assessed according to the results of energy-saving review, and carbon emission quotas (incremental quotas) are reasonably allocated according to the total target. Projects that have not obtained sufficient carbon emission quotas shall not be approved by the investment authorities. In order to reduce their own carbon dioxide emissions, enterprises can control their total emissions not to exceed quotas through independent emission reduction and carbon trading. Carbon trading is divided into two processes: internal trading and external trading.
Four. conclusion and suggestion
To sum up, with the development of international low-carbon economy and the gradual establishment and improvement of domestic carbon emission management system and carbon emission trading market, it is imperative for enterprises to build their own carbon emission management system. The framework of enterprise's own carbon emission management system includes policy and regulation system, carbon emission management institution, carbon asset financial management system, carbon emission information management platform, supporting service system and supervision and management mechanism. The basic process of enterprise carbon emission management is: carbon emission monitoring → statistical analysis report → third-party verification report → unified carbon emission management platform → voluntary emission reduction or carbon trading.
For enterprises that lack carbon emission management at present, especially large enterprises with high energy consumption and high emissions, the following suggestions are put forward: improve the corresponding management methods and establish the carbon emission management system of enterprises as soon as possible, find out the family background, start the preparation of carbon emission reduction plans, and formulate strategies suitable for their own low-carbon development; Closely follow the quota allocation schemes of the pilot areas and countries of the "two provinces and five cities" carbon market, actively communicate with relevant competent departments, and strive to obtain more quotas; The historical emission data of enterprises is the basis for determining the total carbon emission of the country. In order to avoid "losing money" and "passivity" in the process of determining and allocating the total amount of carbon quotas, we should start the carbon inventory pilot and the general survey of related industries of enterprises as soon as possible, especially the carbon inventory in the pilot areas, so as to grasp the initiative and discourse power of the carbon trading market. Establish an IT information platform for carbon assets and carbon trading management as soon as possible to facilitate management; It is suggested that enterprises should strengthen the popularization of international and domestic carbon market-related policies, and cultivate carbon accounting technology and management talents.