China Carbon Watch: Monthly Emissions Trading Bounces Off Record Low

Trading in China’s national carbon emissions allowance (CEA) market rebounded somewhat from September’s record low, totaling 969,746 tons for October. Still, the figure was the fifth-lowest of past monthly volumes.

Block trades took place on four of the 16 trading days of the holiday-shortened month, accounting for 68% of October’s total volume.

At a monthly press conference on Oct. 27, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment restated its commitment to further develop the national CEA market and restart the China certified emission reduction trading scheme, better known as CCER, in light of the policy directives on greenhouse gas emissions announced during the recently closed 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.

However, there were no updates on either the scope of the CEA program or specific timelines regarding the implementation of these commitments. The market responded to the statement with a few days of block trades, but overall interest in trading did not increase much.

Prices for open market trades remained elevated, closing October at 58 yuan ($8.08) per ton, which was up slightly from September.

The October volume-weighted average price for all trades decreased 7.2% from September to 54.5 yuan per ton, pulled down by a much lower average price for block trades.

Bai Bo is executive chairman and co-founder of the Singapore-based MetaVerse Green Exchange.

The analysis and opinions expressed in third-party articles are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the positions of Caixin.

Contact editor Michael Bellart (michaelbellart@caixin.com)

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