Study On Environmental External Cost Accounting And Internalization Of Coal In China

Coal has been always the primary energy source in China, in2011,37.8percent of total energy output and68.4percent of energy consumption is row coal and it will still be the main energy source and strategic material in the future. The contribution of coal to Chinese economy is significant, while the negative externalities caused by coal should not be overlooked. All external environmental costs are not taken into consideration by the existing coal policies, which leads to the environmental pollutions and ecological deteriorations. So, the price of coal can’t reflect the true value of the coal. To make a sustainable coal industry, we should evaluate the environmental external cost of coal correctly and internalize it.In this article, what have done and conclusions is the following:First, The externality theory combined with the coal life cycle process definite the external environmental cost of coal. It is the economic loss due to the environmental pollutions and ecological deteriorations caused by the pollutants which are produced in the processes of the mining, transport, and use of coal and the beneficial enterprises will not be responsible for it.Second, the two frameworks of environmental external cost accounting for coal full cycl based on cost method and pollution damage method are constructed. On the basis of analysing the environmental impact of the coal full cycl, the paper specified accounting area,and establishmented the accounting frameworks of environment external cost for coal based on the two different methods,according to the accounting methods and basic data.Third, in2010alone, the calculation of coal environment external cost based on pollution damage method is547.25billion yuan in our country, accounting for1.36%of GDP, if consider the carbon dioxide, the cost is1.03trillion yuan.Based on the governance cost method, the coal environment external cost is101.09billion yuan in2010(just including the environmental pollution cost).Forth, analysising the gap for the internalization of environment external cost for coal,.the internalization of external costs way is put forward.The current environmental policy of the internalization of external cost is24.22yuan per ton coal, only account for12.27%of the total environmental cost.The following approach of the internalization of external costs can be implemented:Improve the coal ecological compensation mechanism, and develop the third party governance model;imposing transport pollution fee, leving fuel tax in transportation;accelerating the reform for the pollutant discharge and to put into trial the difference pollution tax in the key. The recommended solutions include:to perfect resources ecological compensation legal system; to establish and improve the price mechanism of coal product; and strengthen the pollution prevention technology improvement.