Optimization research on grassland carbon sink trading mechanism based on carbon neutrality goals

“Peak carbon dioxide emissions, carbon neutrality” is an important goal in China’s current social and economic transition period. To achieve the “double carbon” goal in China, it is important to actively explore the trading potential of grassland carbon sinks. The central and local governments formulated plans and targets for grassland carbon sequestration development and developed grassland carbon sequestration projects with international carbon standards in Tibet, Xinjiang, Gansu, and Qinghai. Although the total static income from carbon sequestration transactions is about 546 million yuan, China’s carbon sink trading faces problems such as inconsistent trading rules, weak liquidity of funds, and an imperfect monitoring system, which restricts the development of the grassland carbon sink market. As such, this study discusses the trends and background of China’s carbon sequestration market and puts forward a series of feasible optimization strategies from the perspectives of grassland carbon sequestration development, financing, and supervision mechanisms. First, we simplify the examination and approval process, improve the compensation mechanism of grassland pasture, and gradually build an all-round grassland accounting system for different types of grassland areas to accelerate the formation of a unified and standardized methodology for grassland carbon sequestration accounting, measurement, monitoring, and reporting. Second, by introducing the cooperation mode of government and social capital, expanding the loan mode, and improving the carbon sink bank, we provide sufficient financial support for all aspects of carbon sink trading and improve the grassland carbon sink industry chain. Third, we improve the grassland carbon sink trading supervision mechanism and carbon information disclosure system, improve the supervision level and efficiency of various departments, and achieve the goal of optimizing the grassland carbon sink trading market and improving trading efficiency and fairness.