The auction mechanism plays an important role in carbon markets. In this paper, we review the auction mechanism in different carbon markets, including the EU, California, Australia and China’s pilot carbon markets, and we analyze the auction effect on these carbon markets. The auction practice of international carbon markets shows auction mechanism can benefit carbon markets by better operations and liquidity. However, China’s pilot carbon markets are still under development and improvement and the auction mechanism is at experimental stage. We propose some suggestions to China’s national carbon market from the auction factor design, the auction platform construction and the auction fund management. These research conclusions and recommendations are expected to provide valuable reference for the design of auction mechanism in China’s national carbon market.

Based on the development history of the typical international carbon market, this study established an evaluation index system composed of 32 sub-indicators, measured from the four dimensions of political appeal, decision-making environment, economic base, and market foundation. In depth analysis is conducted on European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), Western Climate Initiative (WCI) etc., in order to summarize the common criteria for different types of international carbon markets and find out which type of market is most suitable for China. The establishment of a cross-border coalition-based carbon market usually considers three key points: close economic links, high cost of abatement in individual regions, and proximity of geographical locations. The establishment of national carbon markets usually takes into consideration the national mandatory emission reduction responsibilities, strong demand for energy structure transformation, and stable national legislation protection. The establishment of regional carbon markets usually includes conditions such as strong regional emission reduction requirements and lack of national legislation of emission rights. The prerequisites for the establishment of industry-based carbon markets include four characteristics: high concentration of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, protection of industrial competitiveness, increases in demand of key emission industries, and solid foundation for industrial emission data. Therefore, this study proposes that China’s carbon market development should consider combination of industry-based and cross-border coalition-based carbon markets, further improve the effectiveness of regulatory policy system, accelerate the collection of local GHG emission inventory data, and strengthen local capacity building so as to achieve the dual goals of GHG emission reduction and industrial restructuring and upgrading through the carbon market.

Article 6 of Paris Agreement introduces two international market mechanisms that, which receive extensive attention and will play an important role in post 2020 climate regime. Three key elements of the international market mechanisms, including the scope, the tradable units’ type and the governance, are identified, as the basis to clarify the basic forms of the two international market mechanisms. Based on the focus issues and their different design identified in negotiations, this paper analyzes the opportunities and challenges for China to participate in the international market mechanism. Considering the inherent needs of climate change mitigation, climate finance, the development of green Belt and Road and South-South Cooperation on climate change, and the existing domestic capacities on the market mechanisms, this paper puts forward the short-term, medium-term and long-term development prospects of the two international market mechanisms.

China is facing the dual challenges of mitigating climate change and maintaining the pace of economic growth. In order to control greenhouse gas emissions with the least social cost, China has piloted seven regional carbon markets since 2013. More importantly, it announced the launching of the national emission trading scheme (ETS) in late 2017. To rationalize the design of the national ETS, this paper aims to provide a roadmap of China’s ETS development from an economic perspective. In the short-term, the priority is to develop a robust market by enhancing the establishment of property rights and monitoring, reporting, and verification (MRV) system. In the mid-term, the national ETS should increase its market liquidity with a higher share of allowance auctioned and the development of carbon finance. In the long-term, the ETS should gradually tighten its emission target to form an explicit while increasing carbon price, and to provide a continuous incentive for China’s decarbonization.