A/Prof. Xu Yan and year 2021 entering postgraduate student Zhao Shilei from the College were invited to attend the 23rd Conference on Environmental Taxation (GCET23) online, hosted by the University of Parma on 21 Sept, 2022.

The theme of the annual conference, held at the University of Parma in Italy, was to better understand state-of-the-art solutions from the perspective of environmental taxation and to explore a wide range of strategies for promoting economic growth. The conference was divided into 2 keynote addresses and 21 discussion groups. More than 100 scholars and officials from China, EU, UK, US, South Africa and other countries had in-depth exchanges on environmental tax. The GCET has been held for 22 years continuously, and many experts and scholars have suggested that environmental tax should be levied to deal with climate change and encourage sustainable development.

Xu Yan, Zhao Shilei and academics from the Université Saint-Louis-Bruxelles and the University of South Africa exchanged views on the Carbon Tax and Carbon Pricing in the first panel discussion, and delivered a keynote speech on the Path Options for Carbon Tax. In her speech, Xu Yan introduced the low-carbon tax system of China, such as the construction of carbon market mechanism, the reform of consumption tax, the development of environmental tax and the low-carbon policy of the country since the dual-carbon target was put forward. Zhao Shilei shared his experience on the potential problems once China starts to collect carbon tax, including its function duplication with other taxes and the widening of the gap between the rich and the poor, as well as the complement of carbon tax with carbon market mechanism and the establishing of a transparent mechanism for using carbon tax revenue. After the speech, foreign scholars raised questions about the progress of study on carbon tax in China, the use of carbon tax and whether China will consider the introduction of carbon tax. Xu Yan answered each questions.

After the scholars' participation in the conference and their discussion with peers around the world on topics of common global concern, the mutual understanding among different countries in environmental tax law and policy, regulation and justice was enhanced, and the exchange and learning of advanced ideas in environmental tax research at home and abroad was promoted. It obtained a good effect and contributed to CUPL's international academic influence.