How does the design of personal carbon trading system affect willingness to participate under carbon neutrality goal?-evidence from a choice experiment.

In order to achieve the emission peak and carbon neutrality ("30·60" goals), personal carbon trading may be included in China's carbon trading market in the future, based on the corporate-level carbon trading that is already in place. It will be an effective solution to reduce carbon emissions from the consumption side and can be used as a supplement to the corporate carbon trading mechanism and carbon tax. This study constructs a personal carbon trading system based on the fundamental realities of China, which includes four attributes: carbon quota acquisition, trading partner selection, low-carbon behavior offset mechanism, and value preservation mode. Through questionnaire survey and choice experiment, the logit model is used to analyze the influence of the four attributes upon the individual willingness to participate in personal carbon trading and the heterogeneity of the public on personal carbon trading in the context of carbon neutrality policy. The study found that the influence of the attributes on the willingness to participate was ranked as follows: carbon quota acquisition > value preservation mode > low-carbon behavior offset mechanism > trading partner selection. The level of knowledge about carbon neutrality and salary will have a significant positive impact on the attribute-level preference of personal carbon trading. Finally, suggestions are made for designing, applying, and promoting personal carbon trading mechanisms to improve the public's willingness to participate in personal carbon trading and perfect the construction of carbon trading systems at the consumption side. The take-home message of the study is that a well-established personal carbon trading mechanism is an effective solution for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.