Liu Shijin: The growth target of green and low-carbon industries should be appropriately raised

On March 24, 2024, at the 2024 Annual Conference of the China Development High Level Forum on Carbon Neutrality and Global Climate Governance, Liu Shijin, Chief Advisor of the China International Cooperation Committee on Environment and Development and former Deputy Director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, stated that the long-term goal of addressing climate change and achieving carbon neutrality cannot be shaken or retreated, and responsibilities must be implemented. Incentive mechanisms must be improved.

He suggested that the transition from dual control of energy consumption to dual control of carbon emissions first requires actively creating conditions and proposing carbon reduction quantitative indicators that are suitable for achieving the "dual carbon" goals. This quantitative indicator should include both national and provincial levels, and further decompose into various industries and enterprises, and establish a verifiable and accountable responsibility system.

At the enterprise level, a carbon footprint capture and carbon account accounting system should be widely established to promote more enterprises to enter the carbon emission market. In such an urgent situation of emission reduction pressure, at least universal mandatory emission reduction should be implemented in the production sector. Only by establishing a strong quantitative responsibility system can various levels, especially enterprises, be stimulated with strong and sustainable emission reduction motivation, and the carbon market can improve efficiency.

Liu Shijin stated that the construction of carbon reduction responsibility systems, carbon accounts, and other facilities belongs to the emission reduction system. In the past, he candidly stated that progress in this area was not fast enough, and an important reason was the high cost. Excessive costs include both technical costs and transaction costs in economics. With the acceleration of the "dual carbon" process and the accumulation of experience, especially the rapid development of digital technology, the cost in this area has been greatly reduced. So accelerating the "dual carbon" process is crucial for technological innovation, and institutional and mechanism innovation is also important, often leading the way.

In addition, Liu Shijin also suggested that the growth target of green and low-carbon industries should be appropriately raised, and the replacement speed of new technologies and industries should be accelerated. With the rapid iteration of technology and a large amount of industrialization investment, the potential for the development of China's low-carbon and green industries is far beyond expectations in many aspects. He believes that the current development goals of renewable energy should respond to the requirements or new goals proposed in COP28. The development goals of renewable energy should be appropriately improved, and the replacement speed of existing technologies and industries by new technologies and industries should be correspondingly accelerated. This is beneficial for enterprises to achieve economies of scale, reduce costs, increase research and development investment, and also shorten the process of achieving "dual carbon"

刘世锦：绿色低碳产业的增长目标应适当调高

2024年3月24日，在中国发展高层论坛2024年年会碳中和与全球气候治理专题研讨会上，中国环境与发展国际合作委员会中方首席顾问、国务院发展研究中心原副主任刘世锦表示，应对气候变化，实现碳中和的长期目标不能动摇或者后退，落实责任，要完善激励机制。

他建议，实现能耗双控转向碳排放双控首先需要积极创造条件，提出与实现“双碳”目标相适应的减碳量化指标，这一量化指标应该既包括全国层面的，也包括各个省市县区层面，再进一步分解到各个行业和企业，并建立起可核查、可追责的责任体系。

在企业层面，则应普遍形成碳足迹捕获和碳账户核算体系，在此基础上推动更多的企业进入碳排放权市场。在减排压力如此紧迫的情况之下，至少在生产领域应当实行普遍的强制性减排，只有建立起强有力的量化责任体系才能够激发起各个层面，特别是企业强劲、持久的减排动力，碳市场才能够提高效能。

刘世锦表示，减碳责任体系、碳账户等等都属于减排制度设施的建设，过去在这方面坦率说进展不够快，一个重要的原因是成本过高。成本过高既包括技术成本也包括经济学讲的交易成本。随着“双碳”进程加快、经验的积累，特别数字技术的快速发展，这方面的成本已经大大降低了。所以加快“双碳”进程技术创新是关键，制度机制创新也很重要，而且往往要走在前面。

此外，刘世锦还建议，绿色低碳产业的增长目标应适当调高，新技术、新产业的替代速度要加快。随着技术上的快速迭代和大量产业化投资，中国低碳绿色产业发展的潜力在不少方面是远超预期的。他认为，现在可再生能源发展目标应该呼应COP28提出的要求或者新的目标，可再生能源的发展目标应该适当的提升，新技术、新产业对原有技术和产业的替代速度应相应加快，这样有利于企业实现规模经济、降低成本，增加研发投入，同时也会缩短实现“双碳”的进程。