In an effort to encourage families to contribute to China’s fight against climate change, the local government is encouraging passengers at a glittering new metro station on the outskirts of Shenzhen to collect “carbon coins” that they can then exchange for shopping vouchers and travel cards.

The “Carbon Road for Everyone” programme in the southeast city is one of many in China that incentivize individuals to give up their automobiles, plant trees, and use less energy. Participants are rewarded for tracking how often they utilise public transportation.

The so-called “carbon inclusion” projects are a part of the ruling Communist Party’s drive to mobilise society as a whole, not just business, in order to turn the nation that emits the most greenhouse gases into one that is carbon-neutral by 2060.

The world’s negotiators will be closely watching China’s efforts to combat climate change as they convene in Dubai for the COP28 sessions next week.

Although the nation has a large emissions reduction burden ahead of it, individual reductions might be enormous. According to a 2021 China Academy of Sciences study, families account for over half of China’s annual emissions, which exceed 10 billion metric tonnes.

“Carbon inclusion is a huge platform and an effective way to mobilise the public to practice low-carbon, zero-carbon and negative-carbon activities,” said Xie Zhenhua, China’s top climate envoy, during the launch of a government carbon inclusion committee in August.

Government plans indicate that China hopes to eventually include the programmes into national carbon trading and provide credits to offset emissions from industrial polluters.

China’s aspirations for carbon inclusion have been in the works since the southeast province of Guangdong released guidelines in 2015 about the conversion of low-carbon activities into credits.

Since then, hundreds of programmes have sprung up all around the nation that use personal information to create carbon coins, such as step counts, transportation usage, and the purchase of eco-friendly or efficient goods.

Additionally, “personal carbon account” systems have been tested by banks. Customers in Quzhou can now earn carbon points that could raise their credit scores through a trial programme called “carbon to gold loan” established by the People’s Bank of China.

Personal carbon trading has been experimented with by several nations, with pilot programmes established in Finland and Norfolk Island, Australia. A 2006 study into the potential was also commissioned by the British Environment Ministry, which came to the conclusion that it was not currently politically or economically possible.

Currently in operation in Singapore, the “leaf” tokens that efficient electricity consumers receive can be traded for retail vouchers.

“Various actors have tried voluntary schemes that do things like visualisations or the sharing of energy or emissions data at a smaller scale,” said Benjamin Sovacool, a professor of Earth and Environment at Boston University.

“But they lack the scale and sheer scope of what the Chinese are conceiving, and they were not integrated into carbon coins, which is a clever idea.”

How to commercialise reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from a variety of human behaviours, such as how individuals commute to work, heat their homes, or take out the garbage, is a significant challenge.

“It’s all about verification,” said Yifei Li, professor of Environmental Studies at New York University’s Shanghai campus. “When it comes to the level of variability, how people conduct their lives is so wildly different. That is a big problem.”

Better criteria are required to measure low-carbon behaviour, according to Zhang Xin, vice-chairman of the environment ministry’s carbon inclusion committee. This year, she warned that the proliferation of schemes “has resulted in confusion and inconsistency.”

Additionally, according to academics, it’s unclear if the programmes actually reduce carbon dioxide emissions or only document those that already occur.

Shanghai announced this month that its programmes would eventually be “fully connected” to the local carbon market, and businesses would be able to apply to use carbon reductions from households to reach targets. The legislation went into force this month.

Additionally, Guangdong permits businesses to use carbon inclusion credits to fulfil 10% of their carbon reduction obligations.

China has a long way to go before realising its goals on emissions trading.

The majority of users continue to be passive participants; according to research released this year, one Beijing-based scheme claims more than 30 million subscribers, but only 1.4% are engaged.

Concerns have also been raised that the carbon inclusion programmes would absolve industrial polluters by placing the onus of emission reductions on households.

“The direction they’re going in at the moment is indeed to transfer climate responsibilities from these big firms and more towards individuals,” said Li.

“That is extremely dangerous,” he added, as it can “alienate individuals from climate action.”

Numerous analysts worry that despite the fact that tens of millions of individuals have already enrolled in programmes around the nation, the state will get additional authority to intervene in people’s lives and penalise those who do not choose low-carbon alternatives.

“While the scheme currently is voluntary, the lack of transparency, the unaccountable nature of the Chinese government and the government’s track record of using big data for social control are all reasons for concern,” said Yaqiu Wang, research director for China at the Freedom House think tank.

Critics refer to China’s contentious approaches to addressing environmental issues, including the closing of thousands of companies to reduce pollution, the relocation of residences to create national parks, and the prohibition on impoverished households using coal for heating.

Su Wei, a climate official for China, told local media that although carbon inclusion programmes will continue to be optional, China’s green transformation would “inevitably involve profound changes in people’s daily habits and consumption patterns.”

On a busy working day in October, commuters showed little interest in the carbon token promotion at the Shenzhen station. The local government, however, was optimistic about the scheme and stated last month that since its August 2022 launch, 14.6 million users had enrolled, resulting in a 720,000 metric tonne reduction in emissions.

(Adapted from ProInvestor.com)