IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ajarec/v62y2018i3p457-479.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Allocating provincial CO2 quotas for the Chinese national carbon program

Author

Listed:
  • Minxing Jiang
  • Bangzhu Zhu
  • Julien Chevallier
  • Rui Xie

Abstract

In order to improve the efficiency of climate change initiatives China launched its national carbon market in December 2017. Initial CO2 quota allocations are a matter of significant concern. How should we allocate CO2 emissions reduction responsibilities among Chinese provinces, assuming that provinces will not or cannot trade these responsibilities among themselves? In this paper, we allocate CO2 quota from the perspective of cost minimisation. First, we estimate the national CO2 marginal abatement cost (MAC) function and deduce the interprovincial MAC functions. Second, we build an allocation model with nonlinear programming for cost minimisation. Finally, we obtain the allocation results under the emissions reduction target by 2030. The results are as follows. (i) The national MAC was 134.3 Yuan/t (at the constant price of 1978) in 2011, with an overall upward trend from 1990 to 2011. (ii) The interprovincial MACs differ significantly and decline gradually from east to west. Hebei has the largest emissions reduction quota, and Shandong has the largest emissions quota by 2030. (iii) Compared with other criteria of per capita, gross domestic product (GDP), grandfathering and carbon intensity, the proposed approach is the most cost‐effective in achieving the reduction target, with cost savings of 37.7, 34.5, 47.9 and 33.87 per cent, respectively.

Suggested Citation

  • Minxing Jiang & Bangzhu Zhu & Julien Chevallier & Rui Xie, 2018. "Allocating provincial CO2 quotas for the Chinese national carbon program," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 62(3), pages 457-479, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajarec:v:62:y:2018:i:3:p:457-479
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-8489.12261
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8489.12261
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/1467-8489.12261?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rose, Adam, 1990. "Reducing conflict in global warming policy : The potential of equity as a unifying principle," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 18(10), pages 927-935, December.
    2. Zhou, P. & Wang, M., 2016. "Carbon dioxide emissions allocation: A review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 47-59.
    3. Dan Wei & Adam Rose, 2009. "Interregional Sharing of Energy Conservation Targets in China: Efficiency and Equity," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 4), pages 81-112.
    4. Lasse Ringius & Asbjørn Torvanger & Arild Underdal, 2002. "Burden Sharing and Fairness Principles in International Climate Policy," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 1-22, March.
    5. Criqui, Patrick & Mima, Silvana & Viguier, Laurent, 1999. "Marginal abatement costs of CO2 emission reductions, geographical flexibility and concrete ceilings: an assessment using the POLES model," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(10), pages 585-601, October.
    6. Andries F. Hof & Michel G.J. Den Elzen, 2010. "The effect of different historical emissions datasets on emission targets of the sectoral mitigation approach Triptych," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(6), pages 684-704, November.
    7. Fare, Rolf & Grosskopf, Shawna & Weber, William L., 2006. "Shadow prices and pollution costs in U.S. agriculture," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(1), pages 89-103, January.
    8. Choi, Yongrok & Zhang, Ning & Zhou, P., 2012. "Efficiency and abatement costs of energy-related CO2 emissions in China: A slacks-based efficiency measure," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 198-208.
    9. Ian Mackenzie & Nick Hanley & Tatiana Kornienko, 2008. "The optimal initial allocation of pollution permits: a relative performance approach," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 39(3), pages 265-282, March.
    10. Zhou, P. & Zhang, L. & Zhou, D.Q. & Xia, W.J., 2013. "Modeling economic performance of interprovincial CO2 emission reduction quota trading in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 1518-1528.
    11. William Nordhaus, 2014. "Estimates of the Social Cost of Carbon: Concepts and Results from the DICE-2013R Model and Alternative Approaches," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 1(1), pages 000.
    12. Ni, Jinlan & Wei, Chu & Du, Limin, 2015. "Revealing the political decision toward Chinese carbon abatement: Based on equity and efficiency criteria," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 609-621.
    13. Helm, Carsten, 2003. "International emissions trading with endogenous allowance choices," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(12), pages 2737-2747, December.
    14. Rose, Adam & Stevens, Brandt, 1993. "The efficiency and equity of marketable permits for CO2 emissions," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 117-146, March.
    15. Yue-Jun Zhang & Zhao Liu & Huan Zhang & Tai-De Tan, 2014. "The impact of economic growth, industrial structure and urbanization on carbon emission intensity in China," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 73(2), pages 579-595, September.
    16. William D. Nordhaus, 1991. "The Cost of Slowing Climate Change: a Survey," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 1), pages 37-66.
    17. Peter Bohm & Bjorn Larsen, 1994. "Fairness in a tradeable-permit treaty for carbon emissions reductions in Europe and the former Soviet Union," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 4(3), pages 219-239, June.
    18. Yao, Xin & Zhou, Hongchen & Zhang, Aizhen & Li, Aijun, 2015. "Regional energy efficiency, carbon emission performance and technology gaps in China: A meta-frontier non-radial directional distance function analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 142-154.
    19. Cui, Lian-Biao & Fan, Ying & Zhu, Lei & Bi, Qing-Hua, 2014. "How will the emissions trading scheme save cost for achieving China’s 2020 carbon intensity reduction target?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 1043-1052.
    20. Wei, Chu & Ni, Jinlan & Du, Limin, 2012. "Regional allocation of carbon dioxide abatement in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 552-565.
    21. Bohringer, Christoph & Lange, Andreas, 2005. "On the design of optimal grandfathering schemes for emission allowances," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(8), pages 2041-2055, November.
    22. Tehrani Nejad M., Alireza, 2007. "Allocation of CO2 emissions in petroleum refineries to petroleum joint products: A linear programming model for practical application," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 974-997, July.
    23. Yi, Wen-Jing & Zou, Le-Le & Guo, Jie & Wang, Kai & Wei, Yi-Ming, 2011. "How can China reach its CO2 intensity reduction targets by 2020? A regional allocation based on equity and development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 2407-2415, May.
    24. Adam Rose & Brandt Stevens & Jae Edmonds & Marshall Wise, 1998. "International Equity and Differentiation in Global Warming Policy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 12(1), pages 25-51, July.
    25. Feng, Chenpeng & Chu, Feng & Ding, Jingjing & Bi, Gongbing & Liang, Liang, 2015. "Carbon Emissions Abatement (CEA) allocation and compensation schemes based on DEA," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 78-89.
    26. Xu, Jiuping & Yang, Xin & Tao, Zhimiao, 2015. "A tripartite equilibrium for carbon emission allowance allocation in the power-supply industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 62-80.
    27. Wei, Yi-Ming & Wang, Lu & Liao, Hua & Wang, Ke & Murty, Tad & Yan, Jinyue, 2014. "Responsibility accounting in carbon allocation: A global perspective," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 122-133.
    28. Kampas, Athanasios & White, Ben, 2003. "Selecting permit allocation rules for agricultural pollution control: a bargaining solution," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(2-3), pages 135-147, December.
    29. Cadarso, María-Ángeles & López, Luis-Antonio & Gómez, Nuria & Tobarra, María-Ángeles, 2010. "CO2 emissions of international freight transport and offshoring: Measurement and allocation," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 1682-1694, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Liu, Jing-Yue & Woodward, Richard T., 2023. "Has Chinese Certified Emission Reduction trading reduced rural poverty in China?," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 67(03), April.
    2. Chen, Zhenling & Yuan, Xiao-Chen & Zhang, Xiaoling & Cao, Yunfei, 2020. "How will the Chinese national carbon emissions trading scheme work? The assessment of regional potential gains," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    3. Dai, Sheng & Zhou, Xun & Kuosmanen, Timo, 2020. "Forward-looking assessment of the GHG abatement cost: Application to China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    4. Zi‐rui Chen & Pu‐yan Nie, 2020. "Implications of a cap‐and‐trade system for emission reductions under an asymmetric duopoly," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3135-3145, December.
    5. Shi, Wei & Li, Wei & Qiao, Fuwei & Wang, Weijuan & An, Yi & Zhang, Guowei, 2023. "An inter-provincial carbon quota study in China based on the contribution of clean energy to carbon reduction," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    6. Tang, Kai & He, Chuantian & Ma, Chunbo & Wang, Dong, 2019. "Does carbon farming provide a cost-effective option to mitigate GHG emissions? Evidence from China," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 63(3), July.
    7. Wu, Jianxin & Ma, Chunbo & Tang, Kai, 2019. "The static and dynamic heterogeneity and determinants of marginal abatement cost of CO2 emissions in Chinese cities," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 685-694.
    8. Xiling Zhang & Xiaoqian Liu & Zeyu Zhang & Ruiyi Tang & Ting Zhang & Jian Yao, 2024. "The Synergistic Effect of the Carbon Emission Trading Scheme on Pollution and Carbon Reduction in China’s Power Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-17, October.
    9. Shuhong Wang & Xiaojing Yi, 2023. "Can the Financial Industry ‘Anchor’ Carbon Emission Reductions?— The Mediating and Moderating Effects of the Technology Market," Energy & Environment, , vol. 34(3), pages 533-559, May.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhou, P. & Wang, M., 2016. "Carbon dioxide emissions allocation: A review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 47-59.
    2. Zhu, Bangzhu & Jiang, Mingxing & He, Kaijian & Chevallier, Julien & Xie, Rui, 2018. "Allocating CO2 allowances to emitters in China: A multi-objective decision approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 441-451.
    3. Tan, Xianchun & Cai, Xiaoli & Cheng, Yonglong & Yan, Hongshuo, 2024. "How to control China's total amount of carbon emissions? An analysis of provincial allowance demands," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 303(C).
    4. Du, Limin & Hanley, Aoife & Wei, Chu, 2015. "Estimating the Marginal Abatement Cost Curve of CO2 Emissions in China: Provincial Panel Data Analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 217-229.
    5. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Wang, Ao-Dong & Da, Ya-Bin, 2014. "Regional allocation of carbon emission quotas in China: Evidence from the Shapley value method," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 74(C), pages 454-464.
    6. Baochen Yang & Chuanze Liu & Yunpeng Su & Xin Jing, 2017. "The Allocation of Carbon Intensity Reduction Target by 2020 among Industrial Sectors in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-19, January.
    7. Chang, Kai & Chang, Hao, 2016. "Cutting CO2 intensity targets of interprovincial emissions trading in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 211-221.
    8. Xi Jin & Bin Zou & Chan Wang & Kaifeng Rao & Xiaowen Tang, 2019. "Carbon Emission Allocation in a Chinese Province-Level Region Based on Two-Stage Network Structures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(5), pages 1-24, March.
    9. Bao-Jun Tang & Yu-Jie Hu, 2019. "How to Allocate the Allowance for the Aviation Industry in China’s Emissions Trading System," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-18, May.
    10. Cui, Lian-Biao & Fan, Ying & Zhu, Lei & Bi, Qing-Hua, 2014. "How will the emissions trading scheme save cost for achieving China’s 2020 carbon intensity reduction target?," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 1043-1052.
    11. Ni, Jinlan & Wei, Chu & Du, Limin, 2015. "Revealing the political decision toward Chinese carbon abatement: Based on equity and efficiency criteria," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 609-621.
    12. Wu, Yinyin & Wang, Ping & Liu, Xin & Chen, Jiandong & Song, Malin, 2020. "Analysis of regional carbon allocation and carbon trading based on net primary productivity in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    13. Jiang, Jingjing & Xie, Dejun & Ye, Bin & Shen, Bo & Chen, Zhanming, 2016. "Research on China’s cap-and-trade carbon emission trading scheme: Overview and outlook," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 178(C), pages 902-917.
    14. Jie Wu, Ying Fan, Yan Xia, 2016. "The Economic Effects of Initial Quota Allocations on Carbon Emissions Trading in China," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(China Spe).
    15. Zhang, Weijie & Zhang, Ning & Yu, Yanni, 2019. "Carbon mitigation effects and potential cost savings from carbon emissions trading in China's regional industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 1-11.
    16. Zhang, Yue-Jun & Wang, Ao-Dong & Tan, Weiping, 2015. "The impact of China's carbon allowance allocation rules on the product prices and emission reduction behaviors of ETS-covered enterprises," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 176-185.
    17. Kejia Yang & Yalin Lei & Weiming Chen & Lingna Liu, 2018. "Carbon dioxide emission reduction quota allocation study on Chinese provinces based on two-stage Shapley information entropy model," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 91(1), pages 321-335, March.
    18. Zhifu Mi & Hua Liao & D’Maris Coffman & Yi-Ming Wei, 2019. "Assessment of equity principles for international climate policy based on an integrated assessment model," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 95(1), pages 309-323, January.
    19. Ciardiello, F. & Genovese, A. & Simpson, A., 2019. "Pollution responsibility allocation in supply networks: A game-theoretic approach and a case study," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 217(C), pages 211-217.
    20. Zhou, P. & Zhang, L. & Zhou, D.Q. & Xia, W.J., 2013. "Modeling economic performance of interprovincial CO2 emission reduction quota trading in China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 1518-1528.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ajarec:v:62:y:2018:i:3:p:457-479. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaresea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.