Download How do you do? An Assessment of the Chinese Carbon Markets

2017_105: How do you do? An Assessment of the
Chinese Carbon Markets’ Implementation and
Performance
Supervisors: Dr Mirabelle Muuls ([email protected]), Dr Laure de Preux
(Business School)
Department: Business School
The purpose of this research is to understand the heterogeneity in managerial and
organisation practices affecting Chinese firms’ performance in relation to existing
energy conservation directives and the development of a national carbon market in
China.
Since 2005, China actively participates in the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM)
of the European and other OECD trading schemes by benefitting from Certified
Emission Reduction (CER) trading arrangements. In 2013, China formally
implemented its first local CO2 trading market subsequently followed by six other local
pilots. In June 2015, each scheme entered its second compliance period without a
thorough assessment of their performance.
Nevertheless China is moving rapidly toward a national scheme. The Chinese
Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) is expected to cover 16 percent of its Greenhouse
Gases (GHG) emissions compared to 9 under the current pilots, and would be twice
the size of the EU ETS market. The evaluation of these schemes so far has been
difficult due to the lack of relevant data.
Although administrative and systematically collected data are flourishing (the so-called
Big Data), there is a lack of information on managerial practices likely to explain the
difference in firms’ performance [Martin, Muuls, de Preux, and Wagner, 2011].
Proceeding by collecting managers’ interviews in an open discussion is an efficient
way to elicit relevant information. Firstly because the differences of practices inside
the firms have proved to explain the persistent productivity differences between firms,
even within narrowly defined industries. Secondly, these open discussions are less
likely to suffer from reporting bias. On the basis of this dialogue, the interviewer then
assesses and ranks the company along various dimensions. As a result, the
interviewee is less likely to choose socially desirable reformulated answers. Another
defining characteristic of this research design is that interviewees are not told in
For more information on how to apply visit us at www.imperial.ac.uk/changingplanet
Science and Solutions for a Changing Planet
advance that they are being assessed, and interviewers do not know the performance
characteristics of the firm they are interviewing (“double-blind” approach). Thirdly,
possible reporting bias is further addressed by linking the results of the interviews to
independent data on economic performance as a validation exercise.
At the dawn of the first Chinese national ETS planned for 2017, this research project
will provide crucial evidence on the role of the energy challenges in the every day
firms’ management, the impact of the Chinese ETS on the business sector, and an
international comparison with respect to the EU ETS.
Muuls, and de Preux (together with Martin and Wagner) have successfully conducted
a similar approach across six countries in Europe when the EU ETS was in its first
phases and have gathered a robust expertise in successfully carrying on this type of
research. They have now teamed up with experts of the Chinese markets, and are
currently running pilot interviews to adjust if necessary the approach. This gives great
support for the success of this project, and the large scale implementation of these
interviews as well the data generated will be perfectly suitable for a PhD thesis.
For more information on how to apply visit us at www.imperial.ac.uk/changingplanet