Carbon emission reduction responsibility allocation in China's power generation sector under the "dual carbon" target-based on a two-stage shared responsibility approach

China's power generation sector generates huge amounts of carbon emissions, and the transmission of electricity across regions contributes to the significant problem of 'carbon leakage', which affects the equity of China's decarbonization efforts. Currently, there is a lack of in-depth research on decarbonization equity, especially notable in the critical area of the power sector. This study aims to explore a new two-stage shared responsibility approach (TSRA) to scientifically and equitably recalculate for carbon emissions from power generation in China's provinces. The study reveals a significant transfer of implied carbon emissions associated with electricity between provinces, with about 19.2% of electricity carbon emissions being transferred to other provinces. Under the first stage benefit-based responsibility allocation, China's inter-provincial electricity transfers exhibit a pronounced 'producerconsumer' dichotomy, and 21 provinces are in this dichotomous structure. Under the second stage of incentive-based responsibility allocation, there are large technical differences between provinces. After adjusting provincial carbon emissions using the TSRA method, the carbon accounting results more effectively embodies fairness compared with the traditional production-based accounting (PBA) and consumptionbased accounting (CBA). The cost analysis, further, shows that the TSRA methodology can save 1.1%4.6% of the overall abatement cost for the national power sector. This study can provide theoretical references for carbon quota and other related policies in China's power generation industry.