Petrochemical carbon neutrality: how petrochemical companies can do carbon verification

The topic of carbon verification is discussed separately because carbon verification, compared with standards and definitions, is more of a technical task and a big problem
.

52.
What is carbon emission accounting?

Simply put, after the boundary is determined, the carbon emissions within the boundary are calculated
.
As large as different countries and regions, as small as one enterprise
.
Due to differences in carbon emission accounting methods, the accounting results are often quite different
.

Carbon emission accounting can be divided into two calculation methods: organizational level and product level
.
The corresponding international accounting standards are ISO14064-1 and ISO10467
.
But generally speaking, the ISO series of accounting standards provide guidance on the overall structure of the accounting, and other standards and materials need to be referred to to actually calculate the required data
.
See the table below for details
.

53.
Why is carbon verification difficult?

Let’s take a look at a news first: On the morning of March 25 this year, Zhao Penggao, deputy director of the Department of Environment and Resources of the National Development and Reform Commission, presided over an expert symposium to listen to the opinions and suggestions of experts in related fields
.
Experts from China International Engineering Consulting Co.
, Ltd.
, China Electricity Council and other units participated in the discussion
.
Anything that is convened by the National Development and Reform Commission to hold a research forum is definitely a top-level design
.

1.
What's the matter? Experts at the meeting agreed that establishing a unified and standardized accounting system and finding out the "household" of carbon emissions is the top priority for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, and it is also the basic requirement for carrying out carbon peaking prospect analysis
.
In the next step, the Department of Environment and Resources will organize relevant institutions and experts to study and propose scientific, reasonable, concise and applicable carbon emission accounting requirements as soon as possible, clarify the accounting boundary and accounting methods, and guide various regions and industries to conduct solid carbon emission surveys and peak prospect analysis
.

2.
Is it difficult? The currently officially released guidelines on carbon accounting, including a regional greenhouse gas inventory guide "Provincial Greenhouse Gas Inventory Guide" issued by the Climate Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, and 25 corporate carbon emission accounting guidelines, as well as the national standard GB/T 32150-2015 and the following 10 industry accounting standards, followed by patches and supplementary data reports for 8 major industries and 15 small industries, it seems to be a huge family
.
However, the meeting considered that these guidelines were not scientifically reasonable and concise enough to apply
.
It can be seen that the content of carbon verification is too large, too unsystematic, and too inconsistent
.

54.
The emission factors of the “Guidelines”/“Standards” for carbon accounting in different industries are indeed different

The data of an article in the public account "Pharaoh Talks about Carbon Neutrality" is quoted here
.
The article clearly describes the same fuel in different industries with different emission coefficients and different carbon content per unit of calorific value
.

1.
For the same fuel, how does the emission coefficient change for another industry? Of course, there are different factors in different industries, which have different oxidation rates or different requirements for fuel quality
.
But the important reason is that there is not one organization that compiles these guidelines and standards, and they do not have a unified citation standard when citing emission factors
.
Therefore, the situation of N emission coefficients of the same fuel is caused
.

2.
The carbon content per unit calorific value is also the same
.
It is also because the emission factors of different industries are different
.

3.
Even carbonate, an emission factor, has 3 different significant figures
.
Therefore, the principle of consistency is a very important principle in corporate carbon verification.
Relevant standards should be unified from one document, and all relevant emission factors should also be unified, of course, including effective figures
.
Such an industry has one "Guide"/"Standard" and is not unified with each other, it is difficult to ensure the principle of consistency
.

55.
How to offset carbon among different industries and enterprises?

Unlike the above-mentioned standards, there are also standards for environmental rights and interests, which also have many sources, great differences, and many disputes
.
The main difference is the registration agency, the type of project and the time limit for issuance
.

1.
Registrar
.
It is generally believed that the environmental rights and interests issued by the United Nations UNFCCC and the Gold Standard are of higher quality, while local standards such as the domestic CCER and the VCU issued by the voluntary emission reduction market are relatively narrow in scope
.

2.
Project type
.
Afforestation and environmental rights based on natural solutions are the most sought after by the market, followed by new energy projects such as wind power and photovoltaics, followed by projects such as biogas recovery
.
However, the popularity of project types is not constant.
In the early days, afforestation projects were once ignored because of the risk of re-release of fixed carbon into the atmosphere caused by wildfires
.
In the future, with the blowout of wind power photovoltaic projects, related environmental rights and interests may also be gradually indifferent to the market
.

3.
Issue period
.
The ideal state is that the emission reductions generated by the project in the current year are used to offset the company’s emissions in the current year, but there are many environmental rights and interests that have been issued for many years, that is, the emission reductions generated many years ago are used to offset the current emissions.
questioned
.

From the perspective of standards, how to reasonably select environmental rights and interests that meet the requirements of carbon neutrality, so that carbon neutrality can be supported by more people, will be a very important criterion for judging the quality of the standard
.

56.
Introduction to the main work carried out by China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation in carbon verification

(1) Do a good job in the statistical work of the company's carbon emission base, establish a file, and find out the family background
.
This is very important
.

(2) Track and monitor corporate carbon emissions and improve the measurement system
.

(3) Establish a database of carbon emission management personnel, and build a training program for all carbon emission management personnel
.

Especially in the industry to promote the establishment of the new position of "carbon emissions administrator"
.
Its main tasks are to monitor the status quo of carbon emissions of enterprises and institutions; to count and calculate the carbon emission data of enterprises and institutions; to verify the carbon emissions of enterprises and institutions; to purchase, sell, and mortgage the carbon emission rights of enterprises and institutions; etc.

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