China keeps a tight rein on voluntary credits
Government keen to avoid oversupply issues that dogged previous iteration of voluntary carbon market
Supply of credits under China’s relaunched carbon offset programme is likely to be limited in the near term as the government tries to avoid the project quality and oversupply issues that plagued the scheme previously, according to market participants. Trading of the offsets, known as China Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) credits, officially resumed on 22 January after almost seven years in limbo. The voluntary scheme was launched in June 2012 but was suspended in March 2017 due to low trading volumes and a perceived lack of standardisation in carbon project methodologies and verification. China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) has selected just four methodologies for projects

Also in this section
22 July 2025
Sinopec hosts launch of global sharing platform as Beijing looks to draw on international investors and expertise
22 July 2025
Africa’s most populous nation puts cap-and-trade and voluntary markets at the centre of its emerging strategy to achieve net zero by 2060
17 July 2025
Oil and gas companies will face penalties if they fail to reach the EU’s binding CO₂ injection targets for 2030, but they could also risk building underused and unprofitable CCS infrastructure
9 July 2025
Latin American country plans a cap-and-trade system and supports the scale-up of CCS as it prepares to host COP30