Carbon Emission Trading is a very interesting scheme that achieves regulation purposes with a free-market mechanism.
碳交易是一个很有意思的用市场机制达成监管目的策略。
No matter what a company is producing, it needs to consume energy to build it. Usually, it uses energy from fossil fuels, and thus produces a lot of carbon dioxide emissions.
不管一个公司是生产什么的，它总要消耗能源。当前能源大部分还都是从化石燃料中来，所以一定会排放二氧化碳。
A global consensus has been reached that carbon emission will drive climate change. To control how much carbon is produced each year, governments all over the world have decided to set a cap on how much carbon the world can produce in one year, and every company will get a certain number of allowances to produce carbon. Each allowance allows a company to produce one ton of CO2.
现在的全球共识是，过度的碳排放会导致气候灾难。为了限制每年的排放总量，世界各国政府决定对每年世界碳排放总量设置一个上限。然后给每个公司发放一定数量的配额。一个配额可以允许这个公司排放一吨的二氧化碳。
If my company gets 100 allowances, but only produce 70 ton of CO2, then I can sell 30 allowances to your company, if you want to expand your business.
如果我的公司有一百个配额，但是只排放了70吨二氧化碳，那我就可以往外卖出30个配额，如果你的公司恰好要扩大规模，就很可能愿意花钱去买一些配额。每个配额的价格是市场供需决定的。
If the regulators want less CO2 for next year, they can simply issue fewer allowances for next year. This is called a cap-and-trade scheme.
如果监管者希望明年的二氧化碳排放量减少一些，那么就可以少发放些配额，那么市场上的配额的价格也就会提高，那些高排放企业的扩大规模的动机就会减弱了。这个方案叫做“先设限，后交易”。
Now business needs to pay for the carbon emission, that will force them to reduce carbon emission by using more efficient equipment. Or cut old production lines.
现在，碳排放要交费了，那么各个公司就会强迫自己去裁撤老旧生产线，升级设备。
They will also be more willing to deploy sustainable energy systems, such as solar and wind.
可持续能源的公司也必然是如鱼得水，风电太阳能产业必然有大发展。
The cap-and-trade scheme is also very flexible. If a company can not switch to higher-end equipment or sustainable energy system, they can buy the allowance from other companies. This way they don’t need to be shut down and cause a lot of unemployment in short term.
碳交易带来的是具有灵活性的监管。如果一个公司短期没有能力升级设备或者转向新能源，那么它也可以去牺牲一点利润购买配额，这样起码不至于让公司立刻关门，造成大规模失业。
Carbon Emission Trading is a very interesting topic. Cause what has a hard cap has a great value. For thousands of years, because human beings rely on farming to survive, land has been considered very precious, because it is capped by nature. But now we are in an industrial age, one tiny piece of land can produce lots of products, and the world population is likely to decrease, so land is not a limiting factor anymore. In China, high house price has caused serious problems, so the state already decided not to get the governments financed by selling land. So maybe selling carbon emission allowances will be a better way.
我觉得碳交易其实跟每个人都息息相关。我们稍微扯开一点说，物以稀为贵。几千年来，因为人类主要是依赖农业，所以大家认为土地是真正的稀缺资源。但是，其实工业时代到来，很少的土地就能养活全人类了，土地并不是真正的稀缺资源。而且在我国，高房价带来了严重的社会问题，政府也决心不用卖地来作为主要财政收入来源了。很多人说，没有了土地财政，我们就玩不下去了，其实不一定，历史上我们就有过盐铁专营，现在碳配额也一样可以带来收入啊，而且不管是正当性，舆论支持度，都比卖地高，可操作性也不比卖地差。所以，很值得咱们仔细琢磨。