Green Supply Chain Management: A New Market Approach for Climate Governance

Abstract

Climate change has become a spot issue of the international community, and how to efficiently carry out international cooperation to deal with climate change is a serious problem to be solved. Actions on climate change launched by government have become a national consensus to various countries, while actions by private sectors, establishment and operation of relevant market mechanisms are also an important approach to address climate change through global cooperation. We have undertaken the construction of international or regional carbon market, clean energy quota market, Energy Management Contracting (EMC) and other market mechanisms, laying a solid foundation for further exploring market mechanism that enhances international climate governance, which also illustrates the significance of market mechanism to international community. New market mechanisms continue to be explored in market activities, and green supply chain management is one of them. Green supply chain management refers to the monitoring and management of impact on environment in the processes of acquisition, transportation, and storage of raw materials, distribution and utilization of products, and disposal of waste products while considering the impact of production processes on environment as well. Green supply chain management, as a market-based mean which balances climate environmental performance and economic benefits, will enable enterprises to include the influence of whole process of production on the climate and environment into decision-making process, launch green monitoring to the whole production cycle of product, so as to realize green and low-carbon development of enterprises. Green supply chain management not only has direct influence on enterprises to achieve greenhouse gas emission reduction, but also has positive meaning to industrial transformation and upgrading, high-end development of manufacturing industry, and promoting the construction of ecological civilization, which accords with economic and industrial development of China in the future, worth being explored and practiced as a new market mechanism.