Emissions trading and China: learning by doing and implications for policy making

摘要

Designing and constructing appropriate regulations at a local level is the most difficult and contentious challenge in the developmental path of establishing a national emissions trading scheme through regional experimentation. The challenges result from the lack of central government guidance and facilitation by setting clear and substantive basics for regulation design at local levels, and linking these basics via explicit duties and responsibilities of central and local governments to dedicated processes to construct the regulatory elements in the framework. Duties and responsibilities of central and local governments need to be clearly defined is order to establish and facilitate regulatory construction processes at local levels that are designed to achieve the desired environmental outcomes of emissions reduction. It is arguable that the more targeted the statutory provision, the more influence over subsequent implementation. The implementation of these emissions trading regulations in practice is also a very significant determinant of desired outcomes because of the considerable gap between regulation on paper and its implementation in practice. In light of the capacity of local government in setting up certain aspects of emissions trading regulation at a local level, a more targeted design from a centralised approach is therefore argued to be more capable of moving beyond a local experimentation approach towards a national emissions trading scheme in the long term. A more targeted approach would to some extent help address the concerns of local policy makers and the challenges that confront local authorities. Instead of viewing centralised engagement in these issues as an intervention from the central government, a joint effort should be made towards the end goal of having a national emissions trading scheme that will provide better incentive to a low carbon future.