On April 20, a World Bank project chaired by Professor Qi Shaozhou, director of the Climate Change and Energy Economy Research Center of Wuhan University (CCEE), was officially launched. The project will lay down a general framework and provide basic ideas for improving the national carbon market, accelerate China’s carbon peak and carbon neutralization, and promote high-quality economic development.
Responsible persons from the International Cooperation Department of the Chinese Ministry of Finance, the Climate Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, and the Foreign Cooperation and Exchange Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, China Project Director of Market Implementation Partnership (PMI) of the World Bank, PMI Project Secretariat, high-level experts in the field of environment and energy, representatives of project partners such as Royal Institute of International Affairs, National Climate Center and Tsinghua University attended the project kick-off meeting online.
On behalf of the project team, Qi Shaozhou reported on the research objectives, key tasks, general framework, main scope of work, research methodology and technical path, work plans, project stakeholders analysis, team composition and division of labor.
It is reported that in order to promote and accelerate the low-carbon development of developing countries, the World Bank has provided technical assistance and capacity building for developing countries to design and implement carbon pricing policies through the Partnership for Market Implementation (PMI) Project. Previously, the Chinese government submitted an expression of interest to the World Bank for the PMI project and received preliminary approval, and the next step is to submit a detailed project implementation plan. The World Bank invited a global tender for a suitable consultant, and the team led by Qi was eventually awarded the funding to provide technical advisory services to the Chinese government in developing the PMI project implementation plan. With the support of the “Wuhan University Sino-foreign Joint Research Platform Seed Fund Program” of the Office of International Affairs, the European Study Center of Wuhan University (WUESC) has been working together with research institutes of universities in the UK and Germany to establish a Sino-European Joint Institute for Carbon Neutrality.
The main task of the project is to prepare a detailed plan on how to design and implement carbon pricing policy in China, based on China’s national conditions and taking into account the critical role of carbon pricing policy in achieving China’s carbon peak target by 2030 and carbon neutrality target by 2060, with a focus on optimizing the national carbon emissions trading system.
The experts attending the meeting discussed the positioning of the PMI project, the key issues, the cooperation and support from the World Bank, and the time schedule. They also affirmed the importance of the project and hoped that the project would be problem-oriented, focus on priorities, fully absorb the experience and lessons of the international carbon market and the existing research base, strengthen communication with all stakeholders, and produce high-quality results.
Qi said that the project will strengthen communication with the World Bank under the guidance of the Chinese Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Ministry of Finance and other government departments, and better serve the improvement of the national carbon market. The launch of this project will further strengthen the cooperation between Wuhan University and the World Bank, the Royal Institute of International Affairs and other international institutions in the fields of carbon market mechanism design, carbon neutrality and other areas of research and talent training. It will help our university deepen the cooperation with world-class universities (including research institutions), first-class disciplines and first-class scholars. It will further help establish a long-term mechanism for cooperation, create a platform for international cooperation in scientific research and innovation, enhance our university’s scientific research capacity and internationalization, produce high-level scientific achievements with international influence, and provide high-quality think tank services for the government.
Link to the news: https://news.whu.edu.cn/info/1015/67008.htm
Rewritten by: Wang Lu
Edited by: Wang Xuanqi, Sylvia, Xi Bingqing
