Study On The Legal System Of China’s Carbon Emissions Trading

Climate change, ozone depletion and acid rain are the three contemporary global environmental problems with which the humanity are facing. The greenhouse gas emissions caused by climate change have had a profound impact on the humanity, which means they not only affect the natural ecosystems, but also affect the survival of human. Since the first World Climate Conference was held in 1979, the climate change has become a subject of the international community’s negotiations. What’s more, the international community has been exploring a framework for responding climate change, in which all countries can participate.In fact, with the adoption of "United Nations’ Framework Convention on Climate Change" in 1992, the global cooperation for responding climate change not only has an official beginning, but also has the legal procedure. The "Kyoto Protocol" adopted in 1997 is the first international forceful legal document aimed at settling emission reduction targets and timetables of developed countries, which indicates that the emission reduction on international response to climate change has entered into a substantive stage. The "Paris Agreement" adopted in 2015 has provided each party with the basic framework of initiative emission reduction commitment after 2020, which indicates that the international response to climate change has entered into a Post-Kyoto period.Carbon emissions trading is also known as the greenhouse gas trading, which was proposed initially in the framework of the "Kyoto Protocol". In fact, carbon emissions trading is the one of the measures on emission reduction, which was originally designed for the developed countries to complete the emission reduction targets. Thereafter, some countries also widely utilize carbon emissions trading to complete the domestic emission reduction. Nowadays, the legal system on carbon emissions trading is relatively perfect in the United States and the European Union. That is to say, they have formulated some comprehensive rules in the aspects such as the trading subjects, the trading objects, the trading regulation, the third-party certification and so on.Moreover, these rules are widely referred by other countries to formulate their policies and legislation on carbon emissions trading.Since China does not have the mandatory emission reduction obligations under the framework of the "Kyoto Protocol", the carbon emissions trading has developed late in China.In recent years, with the increasing pressure on the energy conservation and the emission reduction and the nitiative emission reduction commitment after 2020, it is necessary for China to establish the carbon emissions trading system. In fact, China has already attempted the carbon emissions trading in 2011, and promise that the nationwide carbon emissions trading system will be established in 2017. To be honest, as to the attempts to the carbon emissions trading in China, the system has some defects, mainly including that lower levels of carbon trading legislation, relatively limited carbon trading subjects and objects, quite regional overall purpose on carbon trading and the imperfect third-party certification system. Under the establishment of the nationwide carbon emissions trading system in 2017 in China, the corresponding legal system should be improved as soon as possible. Especially, our country has the demand on raising the legislative level, on expanding the coverage of trading subjects and objects, on defining the total trading control and the initial allocation of quota, and on modifing the trading regulation.