IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/chieco/v78y2023ics1043951x22001730.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Efficiency vs. equity as China's national carbon market meets provincial electricity markets

Author

Listed:
  • Cui, Jian
  • Song, Feng
  • Jiang, Zhigao

Abstract

Emissions reduction in the electricity sector is critical in achieving China's carbon neutrality target. While a national carbon trading market that covers the electricity sector has been established, its effectiveness depends on how this sector evolves into being a more integrated market. This study evaluated the impact of China's electricity market integration on the cost-effectiveness of carbon pricing. An integrated (regional electricity market) and a segmented (provincial electricity market) market scenario were used to identify possible reform paths going forward. Using high-frequency datasets of the five southern provinces in 2018, we assessed the impact of electricity market integration on the abatement potential and cost-effectiveness of carbon pricing. We found that carbon prices need to be as high as 200 yuan/ton to begin achieving overall carbon reduction. In this context, the regional market is more cost-effective in reducing emissions than the provincial one, as the abatement costs are saved by around 60% compared to the latter under the same emission reduction targets. However, the regional market may also raise potential equity issues. The provincial-level distribution of carbon emission reductions, as well as the withdrawal of coal power, are more concentrated in the regional market than in the provincial one, which indicates an inequitable social-economic-environmental impacts of market integration. Our research findings would help to improve policymakers' understanding of the interaction between carbon pricing and electricity market reforms. This would then assist them in coordinating an effective design of both the carbon and electricity markets, in addition to supporting China's carbon neutrality target.

Suggested Citation

  • Cui, Jian & Song, Feng & Jiang, Zhigao, 2023. "Efficiency vs. equity as China's national carbon market meets provincial electricity markets," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:chieco:v:78:y:2023:i:c:s1043951x22001730
    DOI: 10.1016/j.chieco.2022.101915
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1043951X22001730
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.chieco.2022.101915?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Pollitt, M. & Yang, C-H. & Chen, H., 2017. "Reforming the Chinese Electricity Supply Sector: Lessons from International Experience," Cambridge Working Papers in Economics 1713, Faculty of Economics, University of Cambridge.
    2. Fischer, Carolyn, 2001. "Rebating Environmental Policy Revenues: Output-Based Allocations and Tradable Performance Standards," Discussion Papers 10709, Resources for the Future.
    3. Lawrence H. Goulder & Xianling Long & Jieyi Lu & Richard D. Morgenstern, 2019. "China's Unconventional Nationwide CO₂ Emissions Trading System: The Wide-Ranging Impacts of an Implicit Output Subsidy," NBER Working Papers 26537, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    4. Alwyn Young, 2000. "The Razor's Edge: Distortions and Incremental Reform in the People's Republic of China," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 115(4), pages 1091-1135.
    5. Jingbo Cui & Junjie Zhang & Yang Zheng, 2018. "Carbon Pricing Induces Innovation: Evidence from China's Regional Carbon Market Pilots," AEA Papers and Proceedings, American Economic Association, vol. 108, pages 453-457, May.
    6. Fischer, Carolyn & Newell, Richard G., 2008. "Environmental and technology policies for climate mitigation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 55(2), pages 142-162, March.
    7. Qi, Ye & Dong, Wenjuan & Dong, Changgui & Huang, Caiwei, 2019. "Understanding institutional barriers for wind curtailment in China," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 476-486.
    8. Cao, Jing & Ho, Mun S. & Ma, Rong & Teng, Fei, 2021. "When carbon emission trading meets a regulated industry: Evidence from the electricity sector of China," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 200(C).
    9. Fan, Ying & Wu, Jie & Xia, Yan & Liu, Jing-Yu, 2016. "How will a nationwide carbon market affect regional economies and efficiency of CO2 emission reduction in China?," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 151-166.
    10. Lin, Jiang & Kahrl, Fredrich & Yuan, Jiahai & Chen, Qixin & Liu, Xu, 2019. "Economic and carbon emission impacts of electricity market transition in China: A case study of Guangdong Province," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 238(C), pages 1093-1107.
    11. Wang, Qiang & Chen, Xi, 2012. "China's electricity market-oriented reform: From an absolute to a relative monopoly," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 143-148.
    12. Chen, Hao & Cui, Jian & Song, Feng & Jiang, Zhigao, 2022. "Evaluating the impacts of reforming and integrating China's electricity sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    13. Poncet, Sandra, 2003. "Measuring Chinese domestic and international integration," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 1-21.
    14. Lin, Jiang & Kahrl, Fredrich & Yuan, Jiahai & Liu, Xu & Zhang, Weirong, 2019. "Challenges and strategies for electricity market transition in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    15. Cao, Jing & Dai, Hancheng & Li, Shantong & Guo, Chaoyi & Ho, Mun & Cai, Wenjia & He, Jianwu & Huang, Hai & Li, Jifeng & Liu, Yu & Qian, Haoqi & Wang, Can & Wu, Libo & Zhang, Xiliang, 2021. "The general equilibrium impacts of carbon tax policy in China: A multi-model comparison," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C).
    16. Alwyn Young, 2000. "The Razor's Edge: Distortions and Incremental Reform in the People's Republic of China," NBER Working Papers 7828, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    17. Zhang, Sufang & Andrews-Speed, Philip & Li, Sitao, 2018. "To what extent will China's ongoing electricity market reforms assist the integration of renewable energy?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 165-172.
    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. Yang, Yan-Shen & Xie, Bai-Chen & Tan, Xu, 2024. "Impact of green power trading mechanism on power generation and interregional transmission in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).

    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. Chen, Hao & Cui, Jian & Song, Feng & Jiang, Zhigao, 2022. "Evaluating the impacts of reforming and integrating China's electricity sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    2. Cao, Jing & Ho, Mun S. & Ma, Rong & Zhang, Yu, 2024. "Transition from plan to market: Imperfect regulations in the electricity sector of China," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 52(2), pages 509-533.
    3. Song, Feng & Bi, De & Wei, Chu, 2019. "Market segmentation and wind curtailment: An empirical analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 831-838.
    4. Zheng LU & Xiang DENG, 2017. "Regional Specialization: New Methods Of Measurement And The Trends In China 1987-2007," Applied Econometrics and International Development, Euro-American Association of Economic Development, vol. 17(2), pages 119-134.
    5. Agnosteva, Delina E. & Anderson, James E. & Yotov, Yoto V., 2019. "Intra-national trade costs: Assaying regional frictions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 112(C), pages 32-50.
    6. Li, Jianglong & Lin, Boqiang, 2017. "Does energy and CO2 emissions performance of China benefit from regional integration?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 101(C), pages 366-378.
    7. Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten & Libman, Alexander & Yu, Xiaofan, 2014. "Economic integration in China: Politics and culture," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 470-492.
    8. Hengyun Ma & Les Oxley & John Gibson, 2008. "Testing for Energy Market Integration in China," Working Papers in Economics 08/12, University of Canterbury, Department of Economics and Finance.
    9. Vendryes, Thomas, 2011. "Migration constraints and development: Hukou and capital accumulation in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(4), pages 669-692.
    10. Chen, Quanrun & Gao, Yuning & Pei, Jiansuo & de Vries, Gaaitzen & Wang, Fei, 2022. "China's domestic production networks," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    11. Qin, Quande & Yu, Ying & Liu, Yuan & Zhou, Jianqing & Chen, Xiude, 2023. "Industrial agglomeration and energy efficiency: A new perspective from market integration," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    12. Lu Ming & Zhao Chen & Yongqin Wang & Yan Zhang & Yuan Zhang & Changyuan Luo, 2013. "China’s Economic Development," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14502.
    13. Zheng, Yilin & Lu, Ming & Li, Jiewei, 2022. "Internal circulation in China: Analyzing market segmentation and integration using big data for truck traffic flow," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    14. Dougherty, Sean & Herd, Richard & He, Ping, 2007. "Has a private sector emerged in China's industry? Evidence from a quarter of a million Chinese firms," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 309-334.
    15. Becker, Jonathon M., 2023. "Tradable performance standards in a dynamic context," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    16. Amiti, Mary & Smarzynska Javorcik, Beata, 2008. "Trade costs and location of foreign firms in China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 85(1-2), pages 129-149, February.
    17. Jin, Gang & Yu, Binbin & Shen, Kunrong, 2021. "Domestic trade and energy productivity in China: An inverted U-shaped relationship," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(C).
    18. Ma, Hengyun & Oxley, Les & Gibson, John, 2010. "China's energy economy: A survey of the literature," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 105-132, June.
    19. Jin, Gang & Shen, Kunrong & Li, Jian, 2020. "Interjurisdiction political competition and green total factor productivity in China: An inverted-U relationship," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    20. Larch, Mario & Tan, Shawn W. & Yotov, Yoto V., 2023. "A simple method to ex-ante quantify the unobservable effects of trade liberalization and trade protection," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 1200-1213.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Electricity market reform; Carbon market; Market integration; Carbon emissions; Equity and efficiency;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C61 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Mathematical Methods; Programming Models; Mathematical and Simulation Modeling - - - Optimization Techniques; Programming Models; Dynamic Analysis
    • P21 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Socialist and Transition Economies - - - Planning, Coordination, and Reform
    • Q41 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Energy - - - Demand and Supply; Prices
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    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:eee:chieco:v:78:y:2023:i:c:s1043951x22001730. 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/chieco .

    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.