China has built the world's largest carbon market covering greenhouse gas emissions (People's Daily Online)

The State Council Information Office held a regular briefing on the State Council's policies today, and Zhao Yingmin, vice minister of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, introduced the current construction and operation of China's carbon market.

Zhao Yingmin said that the national carbon emission trading market took the power generation industry as a breakthrough, officially opened in July 2021, and has successfully completed two compliance cycles, the first compliance cycle is from 2019 to 2020, and the second compliance cycle is 2021 and 2022, achieving the expected construction goals. At present, the national carbon emission trading market covers about 5.1 billion tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions, and 2,257 key emitting enterprises are included, making it the world's largest carbon market covering greenhouse gas emissions.

At this stage, a relatively complete institutional framework system has been established. The State Council issued and implemented the "Interim Regulations on the Administration of Carbon Emission Trading", and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued management measures and three management rules for carbon emission rights registration, trading and settlement, as well as technical specifications and supervision and management requirements for the verification of carbon emission accounting reports in the power generation industry. The legal system and working mechanism of the national carbon emission trading market composed of standards and specifications, as well as the business rules of registration institutions and trading institutions.

Zhao Yingmin introduced that the current market performance is stable and improving. First, compared with the first compliance cycle, the market activity has increased significantly in the second compliance cycle. By the end of last year, the cumulative trading volume of the national carbon emission trading market reached 440 million tons, with a turnover of about 24.9 billion yuan. The second compliance cycle saw a 19% increase in volume and an 89% increase in turnover over the first one.

Second, carbon prices as a whole have shown a steady upward trend. From 48 yuan per ton at the start to about 80 yuan per ton, an increase of about 66%. In the second compliance cycle, the enthusiasm of enterprises to participate in transactions has increased significantly, accounting for 82% of the total number of enterprises participating in transactions, an increase of nearly 50% compared with the first compliance cycle.

"The healthy operation of the national carbon emission trading market has played an important role in achieving the dual carbon goals and promoting the green and low-carbon development of the whole society. Zhao Yingmin said.