China’s voluntary carbon market could relaunch as early as October to support country’s climate efforts, experts say

The long-awaited reboot of China’s voluntary carbon market, the China Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) scheme, could happen as early as October to complement China’s national carbon trading market in supporting the country’s carbon-neutral goals, energy experts said.

The relaunch of the scheme could greatly benefit climate mitigation projects, such as forestry and energy efficiency enhancements. However, project quality remains a key challenge, and this could hamper China’s climate efforts, experts said.

“We expect the final relaunch of CCER in October this year, when the CCER trading regulation public consultation has ended and been finalised, with new methodologies for CCER added,” said Tan Luyue, carbon analyst at financial services company Refinitiv.

Earlier this month, China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) released a draft document on the management approach for the CCER scheme for public feedback, after suspending new project registration under CCER for six years. The proposed guidelines suggest a more comprehensive regulatory structure for the registration of CCER projects, trading, monitoring, and penalties.

The draft guidelines release is the latest signal that the reboot of the CCER scheme is in sight. CCER refers to emissions reduction activities conducted by companies on a voluntary basis that are certified by the Chinese government, including renewable power generation and waste-to-energy projects, as well as forestry projects.