Analysis of the Impact of Electricity Emission Factor Selection on High Energy-Consuming Industries under the National Carbon Market Expansion

Electricity emission factors are widely used in carbon accounting for industries, enterprises, and products. In China, regional differences in power emission factors significantly impact indirect carbon accounting. Using national, regional, or provincial factors affects the assessment of provincial carbon targets, export tariffs on energy-intensive products, and compliance costs in the domestic carbon market. The study takes the electrolytic aluminum industry as an example, measuring and comparing carbon emissions across different regions under various levels of emission factors, to assess the impact on the carbon accounting results for high energy-consuming industries and the carbon compliance costs for the industry. The results show that the selection of electricity emission factors needs to be tailored to the application scenarios of the accounting subject. For promoting fairness, the national carbon emissions trading market should adopt the national average electricity emission factor. When assessing carbon emission intensity and compiling greenhouse gas inventories for provincial and sub-provincial regions, as well as disclosing voluntary emission reports of enterprises, priority should be given to using the average emission factor of electricity for provincial power grids.