The Sustainable Development of the Economic-Energy-Environment (3E) System under the Carbon Trading (CT) Mechanism: A Chinese Case

The implementation of the carbon trading (CT) mechanism is important for the transformation of China’s renewable energy industry, thereby affecting the structure of energy, economy, and the environment, and determining the sustainable development of China’s economic-energy-environment (3E) system in the future. This paper constructs a 3E system simulation model under the CT mechanism based on the theory of system dynamics and taking the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as an example. We study the internal operation mechanism of the carbon emissions trading system and its impact on 3E by combing the related mechanisms of the CT market, CO2 emissions, energy consumption, and gross domestic product (GDP), thereby helping to provide references for policy-making institutions. The results show that the implementation of CT can effectively reduce energy consumption growth and carbon emissions in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, and the negative impact of CT implementation on GDP is significantly lower than its positive impact on reducing carbon emissions and energy consumption. Thus, the CT mechanism is conducive to the sustainable development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region’s 3E system. In addition, reducing the total amount of quota, reducing free quota, and increasing CT price can effectively promote carbon emission reduction, thus promoting the sustainable development of the 3E system.