Ziyuan Kexue (Oct 2023)
Comparison of carbon emission responsibility allocation methods and carbon compensation design among provinces in China
Abstract
[Objective] With the deepening of domestic value chain division system， the flow of intermediate and final products between provinces leads to huge differences in provincial carbon emission responsibilities under different measurement methods. Finding a scientific and reasonable measurement method of regional carbon emission responsibility is an important prerequisite for promoting inter-provincial cooperation on carbon emission reduction. [Methods] Based on China’s inter-provincial input-output data and carbon emissions data released by the Carbon Emission Accounts & Datasets, this study applied six measurement methods—production based approach, consumption based approach, shared responsibility approach, technology adjusted consumption based approach, producer footprint approach, and income based approach—to calculate provincial carbon emissions under a unified multi-regional input-output (MRIO) analytical framework, and designed a voting mechanism, that is, one vote for one period and one point for each province, to compare the six measurement methods from the perspective of fairness and efficiency. Based on the evaluation results, we designed the comprehensive responsibility approach, and constructed an inter-provincial carbon emission compensation system. [Results] (1) There are significant differences in the provincial carbon emissions defined by different measurement methods, and the principles of shared responsibility and consumption based responsibility adjusted by technology are relatively balanced. (2) From the perspective of overall fairness, the shared responsibility approach is the best; From the perspective of individual fairness, the income based responsibility approach is the optimal choice; From the perspective of carbon emission efficiency, the producer footprint approach is the optimal choice. The existing production based and consumption based responsibility approaches are not optimal choices from the perspectives of fairness and efficiency. [Conclusion] The comprehensive responsibility approach designed in this study is more compromising and reasonable. We propose to explore the experience of carbon emission compensation by using the comprehensive responsibility approach as the evaluation standard in the carbon emission reduction cooperation pilot areas.
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