RESEARCH ON CLEAN ENERGY TRADE AND ASYMMETRIC CARBON RESPONSIBILITY IN SCO MEMBER STATES BASED ON A HETEROGENEOUS QUANTILE RISK NETWORK

Drawing on the context of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), this study focuses on the asymmetry of carbon responsibility distribution in clean energy trade and proposes a “Quantile Risk Responsibility Network” (QRRN) theoretical framework. By integrating quantile risk analysis and complex network methods, this paper develops a multidimensional mechanism for identifying and redistributing carbon responsibility. It further introduces the concept of “Systemically Important Carbon Responsibility” (SICR) countries to capture the transmission of high tail risk within institutional structures. The research reveals that, within the SCO region, major clean energy-exporting countries often leverage technical standards, financial dominance, and statistical gaps to “offshore” their carbon responsibility onto Central Asian member states with weaker institutional capacity. In turn, those states face both tail-end exposure and structurally compressed responsibility due to the absence of formal carbon accounting systems and insufficient policy influence. Accordingly, this paper proposes a “Quantile-weighted Carbon Responsibility Scheme” (QCRS), which applies differentiated weights to each country's responsibility quantile, supplemented by regional funding compensation, technological support, and dispute-resolution mechanisms. This institutional framework aims to reconcile development rights, risk exposure, and varying levels of capacity. The study recommends that the SCO promote the shift from “mean-based fairness” to “structural justice” in carbon responsibility allocation and, in doing so, provide a replicable institutional paradigm for carbon responsibility distribution under South–South cooperation.