Empirical Analysis of Carbon Trading Policy Applicability in Transportation

Carbon trading policy, as an important1 approach to energy conservation and emission reduction, is being applied by an increasing number of cities at home and abroad with a certain effect. Meanwhile, traffic is a major source of energy consumption and carbon emission in cities and thus a main field of energy conservation and carbon emission and a carbon emission trading object in cities. Globally, the carbon trading policy is rarely adopted in the traffic sector. Emission monitoring and quota allocation are challenging tasks due to several characteristics, such as the mobility and dispersibility of vehicles and non-profitability of certain sectors. Therefore, the inclusion of the transportation sector in the carbon emission trading policy framework remains an issue. On the basis of the definition of the carbon emission trading policy framework, this study draws certain elements of applicability of carbon emission trading policy and conducts an empirical analysis of the applicability of the participation of the transportation sector in carbon emission trading.