Chinese Journal of Population, Resources and Environment (Dec 2021)

Emission trading innovation mechanism based on blockchain

  • Nan Zhao,
  • Zhaohan Sheng,
  • Hao Yan

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 19, no. 4
pp. 369 – 376

Abstract

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The rationality and scientific nature of the emission trading mechanism is the key to the effective implementation of environmental and economic policies. As far as China is concerned, there are phenomena such as information asymmetry, low supervision efficiency, and alienation of government and enterprise behaviors caused by the incomplete mechanism of emission trading in the practice of different pilots. The introduction of blockchain technology can innovate the traditional transaction model and form a decentralized peer-to-peer transaction and a trusted emission trading market. To this end, based on the current emission trading mechanism and the characteristics of blockchain technology, this paper couples the core technologies of blockchain with the functional requirements of application scenarios. Then, an innovative application framework is built based on the consortium blockchain Fabric from three aspects: emission trading supervision, secondary trading market construction, as well as emission trading incentive and punishment mechanisms. Technologies such as the consensus mechanism, smart contract, Merkle tree and asymmetric encryption are comprehensively applied in this process. In the construction of the blockchain framework of the secondary market for emission trading, institutional changes and innovations brought about by the blockchain at various levels are analyzed in terms of participants, transaction processes and the transaction scope. At the same time, smart contract functions and algorithms are designed for the purchase, transfer-out and trading of emission rights, and the operation business logic of the smart contract is analyzed. On the whole, this paper explores the application framework of blockchain technology in the field of emission trading at the macro level, and analyzes the application mechanism of the corresponding technologies of blockchain at each coupling point in the framework at the micro level. The collaborative analysis at the two levels shows that blockchain technology and the requirements of emission trading mechanism can be effectively coupled, and the application of blockchain technology can promote the effective supervision of enterprises' emission behavior, making the processes of the purchase, transfer and transaction of emission rights intelligent and automated, and providing technical support for cross-regional emission trading to reduce transaction costs and management complexity. In addition, the issuance of emission credits based on smart contract will be a new incentive for companies to actively participate in transactions. Based on the above analysis, this paper believes that the innovative application of blockchain technology is of great significance in the promotion of the market-based allocation of element of emission trading and the rational allocation of environmental resources. It will lead to a major breakthrough in the traditional trading system in terms of trading modes, forming a value transmission network of environmental resources between the government and polluters.

Keywords