China's carbon market for greenhouse gas reductions, also known as the China Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) scheme, was relaunched on Monday, and enterprises can trade voluntarily.

After the CCER was paused in 2017, China has polished and released multiple regulations to strengthen its regulatory frameworks.

As an important supplementary mechanism to the country's national carbon-trading market, the CCER will play a significant role in achieving emissions cost reductions and renewable energy goals. Under CCER, carbon-emitting companies compensate credit-holding entities for carbon credits and to offset their own emissions. At present, the trading market is mainly open to entities in four major fields, including afforestation, solar power generation, offshore wind power generation and mangrove planting.

Green energy producers can profit by compensating their high operation or maintenance cost by selling carbon credits, according to Yang Pingjian, a director at the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences.

In 2021, China's national carbon market started online trading. Carbon emissions by more than 2,000 power companies covered in the first batch of trading are estimated to exceed 4 billion tonnes per year, making the market the world's largest in terms of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions covered.

As a market-based emission reduction tool, the carbon market realizes the optimal allocation of resources and guides emission control companies in their low-carbon transformation.

(Cover image via CFP)