China’s Stuttering Carbon Trading Market Could Get Boost

China’s carbon trading market has yet to take off and although the expansion of trial programs to seven new cities in 2015 could accelerate activity, uncertainties remain. Under the current Chinese Certified Emissions Reductions (CCERs) scheme being trailed in five major cities including Shanghai and Beijing, companies can cover 5%-10% of their total emissions.

As of October 27 the National Development and Reform Commission had approved 90 projects, of which 14 included in a project review had reduced emissions by 8.94 million tons. It is expected that the national voluntary registration system for emission reduction and seven carbon trading systems will connect with each other by the end of this year.

However, due to different regional carbon offsetting policies and prices, national carbon offsetting regulation is not very clear and the awareness and capability of those enterprises which control emission reduction still needs to be broadened and improved. Therefore, all these factors lead to uncertainty in the CCER market.

Translated and edited by ReneSola. Source: 21CBH.