The Role and Prospect of Emission Trading in the Optimal Allocation of Environmental Resources

The emission trading system is an important institutional innovation which effectively uses market mechanisms to improve the efficiency of environmental governance, and plays an important role in exploiting the potential of emission reduction for government and enterprise, which would realize the optimal allocation of environmental resources. The study analyses the design mechanism of emission trading system, the crucial parts including verification of emission rights, paid use for resources, emission trading, reserve and control mechanism, as well as management and incentive policies. Thereby, the current problems of emission trading system in China have been found out, including the deficiency of top-level design, ineffective cohesive mechanism between different systems, inactive trading market, and insufficient supporting policy guarantee policy. Based on the development trend of national policies and the practical problems faced by emission trading, the study proposes four prospects for the emission trading efforts. First, the issuance of guidance documents for deepening the emission trading system at the national level is an important foundation for the development of the emission trading system. Second, convergence between the emission rights trading and the emission permit system is the inevitable trend of the development of the system. Third, working on promoting the construction of a trading system dominated by market mechanisms is the focus of the optimal allocation of resources and environment. Last, establishing and improving relevant supporting mechanisms is an important guarantee for the stable development of the emission rights trading market and the efficient allocation of environmental resources.