Allocating carbon emission responsibilities in the Chinese civil aviation industry considering equity and efficiency

A reasonable and practical allocation of carbon emission rights to the transport industry, a significant net emitter of carbon dioxide, is critical for achieving China's carbon neutrality goals. This paper proposes an allocation scheme for carbon emissions, considering the differences in the emission reduction contributions and capacities of China's five major airlines, while balancing equity and efficiency. First, a carbon emission allocation framework is developed based on the principle of fairness, determining the weights of relevant indicators. Next, nine scenarios are constructed considering both aviation and energy development, and the comprehensive index method is applied for the initial allocation of carbon emission rights. Following this, the initial allocations are evaluated for efficiency based on the principle of efficiency. Finally, the optimal distribution of carbon emission rights is determined using the Zero-Sum-Gain Data Envelopment Analysis (ZSG-DEA) model. The results indicate that this allocation model, grounded in both fairness and efficiency, can effectively optimize the carbon emission rights distribution for the five major airlines.