Demand for Low-quality Offsets by Major Companies Undermines Climate Integrity of the Voluntary Carbon Market
Many companies regard carbon offsetting projects as an important part of corporate net-zero strategy. Do carbon offsets deliver? A study, led by Dr. Trencher from Kyoto University, Japan, finds that many offset projects are poor quality and fail to reduce emissions as claimed. By focusing on the twenty companies retiring the most offsets from the voluntary carbon market over 2020–2023 and evaluating the quality of projects based on the four dimensions, (1) use of offsets from low/high-risk project types; (2) age of projects and credits; (3) price of credits; and (4) country of implementation, the research team find that companies have predominantly sourced low-quality, cheap offsets: 87% of projects carry a high risk of not providing real and additional emissions reductions, with most offsets originating from forest conservation and renewable energy projects. Most offsets do not meet industry standards regarding age and country of implementation. The study suggests that the voluntary carbon market is not supporting effective climate mitigation. To address the situation, the research presents the two major recommendations: first, improving regulatory framework to enhance the offset quality; second, downplaying voluntary climate actions from compensation to contribution, which could generate more motives for companies to make real investments and change behaviours in reducing in-house carbon emissions directly.
Note:
The study is authored by Gregory Trencher, Sascha Nick, Jordan Carlson and Matthew Johnson and published in Nature Communications on 10 August 2024 and can be accessed at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-51151-w
China Mainland’s Energy Transition: How to Overcome Financial, Societal, and Institutional Challenges
The 2060 carbon neutrality goal announced in 2020 sets the tone for the long-term Chinese climate policy. China has made considerable achievements in greening its energy mix in the past decade; solar power and wind power capacity both ranked top as of 2019. However, there are mixed signals from the coal power development plan and the increasing dependence on natural gas. Discussion of China’s energy transition begins with energy governance structure, supplemented by the interaction of energy transition with climate change and air pollution issues. In particular, the institutional setting for national energy and climate policy is discussed in this chapter, followed by inclusion of key elements that impact the interaction between energy democracy and energy transition process. Civil society organisations and industrial associations have been playing an important role in pursuing a decentralised renewable energy system and accordingly promoting energy democracy. Special focus will be placed on the renewable energy sector’s involvement in the transition.
Note:
The chapter by Jiaqiao Lin and Ang Zhao was published in the book titled Energy Transition and Energy Democracy in East Asia (pp51-65) in 2022. The study can be accessed at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/359478281_China_Mainland's_Energy_Transition_How_to_Overcome_Financial_Societal_and_Institutional_Challenges_in_the_Long_Term
Current Status, Challenges and Resilient Response to Air Pollution in Urban Subway
Subway air pollution mainly refers to inhalable particulate matter (PM) pollution, organic pollution, and microbial pollution. Based on the investigation and calculation of the existing researches, this paper summarises the sources of air pollutants, chemical compositions, and driving factors of PM variations in subway systems. It evaluates the toxicity and health risks of pollutants. In this paper, the problems and challenges during the deployment of air pollution governance are discussed. Results show that the global PM compliance rate of subway is about 30%. The subway air pollution is endogenous, which means that pollutants mainly come from mechanical wear and building materials erosions. Particles are mainly metal particles, black carbon, and floating dust. The health risks of some chemical elements in the subway have reached critical levels. The variations of PM concentrations show spatial-temporal characteristics, which are mainly controlled by train age, brakes types, and environmental control systems. The authors then analyze the dynamics of interactions among government, companies and public during the air pollution governance by adding the following questions: (a) who pays the bill; (b) how to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of policies; (c) how the public moves from risk perception to actions; (d) how to develop clean air technology better so as to ultimately incentivise stakeholders and to facilitate the implementation of subway clean air programme in a resilient mode.
Note:
The study is published in Atmosphere 2019, 10(8), 472 and authored by Weiji Zhang, Han Zhao, Ang Zhao, Jiaqiao Lin, and Rui Zhou. The journal article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos10080472
The Reality of Updating China’s Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs): Effects of Long-Term Economic Growth and Global Carbon Emissions Budget
In June 2015, prior to the COP21 talks in Paris, China committed to peak its carbon emissions around 2030. China's commitment was an aggressive move to combat climate change, demonstrating its leadership in the global climate engagement. Yet, a critical question is whether China's commitment adequately considered the global carbon emissions budget defined by the global average temperature increase target of 2 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. The piece argues that China shall set its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) targets not only according to their own economic and technological capacities but also based on the precondition of meeting the global carbon emission target. By investigating economic factors behind China’s predicted carbon emissions, such as GDP growth, urbanisation and energy consumption, this essay discusses whether China can reach the carbon emissions peak earlier and reduce its total carbon emissions in 2025 onwards.
Note:
The article is authored by Ang Zhao and published in The Whitehead Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations 20 (2018-2019), pp63-69. The text can be accessed at https://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?handle=hein.journals/whith20&div=10&id=&page=
The Challenges of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Development in China: A Comparative Analysis of Three Demonstration Cases in Europe, U.S. and China
As a significant mitigation strategy to fight climate change, Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) demonstration projects have received huge amount of public funding across the world. After examining three large scale integrated CCS coal-fired power demonstration projects, which are carried out by America, Europe and China, this paper presents three different approaches that three authorities are taking to support the adventure of CCS technology. By comparing these three cases, the paper suggests that there exist some significant challenges in the CCS development in China and offers relevant policy recommendations to cope with the challenges.
Note:
The article is authored by Ang Zhao and published in International Journal of Applied Logistics (IJAL), 3(3), 15-21. 2012. The text can be accessed at https://www.igi-global.com/article/content/70589
The Impact of Electricity Market and Environmental Regulation on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) Development in China
Carbon Capture & Storage (CCS) has been regarded as a significant mitigation strategy to tackle global warming despite the uncertainties of carbon price and CCS technology exist. China is the biggest coal consumer in the world and around four fifths of its electricity comes from coal power plants. Many think CCS has to plays a central role in cutting the carbon emissions of China’s coal power fleet. Most existing researches on CCS development in China emphasize the importance of sufficient funding, technological access, and market readiness, but put little light on the role of environmental regulation and electricity market establishment. This chapter examines the impact of Chinese electricity market establishment and environmental regulatory institutions on CCS. This chapter argues that Chinese government should protect Intellectual Property Right (IPR), liberalise electricity market, and enforce environmental regulation in order to harvest long-term CCS benefits successfully.
Note:
The article is authored by Ang Zhao and published as a book chapter in Green Finance and Sustainability: Environmentally-Aware Business Models and Technologies, 2011. pp463-471. The text can be accessed at https://www.igi-global.com/chapter/impact-electricity-market-environmental-regulation/53264