China's Carbon Trading Market Shows Stronger Vitality During Past Four Years

BEIJING, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News / WAM - 16th Jul, 2025) China's national carbon market has shown stronger vitality during the past four years, facilitating a green transformation in power generation, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on Wednesday.

Accroding to China Central Television (CCTV) report, the country launched the online trading of its national carbon market on 16th July 2021.

The market saw transaction values exceed 18 billion Yuan (approximately US$2.51 billion) in 2024, representing a nearly 25 percent year-over-year increase and setting a historical high.

The price of carbon dioxide emissions quotas exceeded 100 yuan (about US$13.94) per tonne in November 2024. Recently, the carbon price has stabilized at 70 to 80 yuan (about US$9.76 to US$11.15) per tonne, nearly doubling compared to the initial carbon market.

Carbon trading, which allows the buying and selling of permits to emit carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gases, is regarded as one of the critical tools to help reduce carbon footprints and meet emissions targets.

"As of the most recent trading day (15th July), the market reported a trading volume of over 670 million tonnes of carbon emissions and a total turnover of over 46.

2 billion yuan (about US$6.44 billion), indicating a continual expansion of transaction scale," said Xu Mingyi, general manager of Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange.

So far, the first batch of over 2,000 thermal power companies participating in the national carbon emissions trading market has established the concept that "emissions come at a cost, while emission reductions can yield benefits".

While actively taking on the Primary responsibility for carbon reduction, power enterprises are also leveraging advanced technologies to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

"Our research found that for key emission companies of the power generation industries in the national carbon emissions trading market, the carbon emission intensity in 2023 decreased by approximately 8.78 percent compared to 2018. As a result, the total amount of carbon emissions was reduced by about 2.8 percent. This results in an average annual reduction in emission costs of approximately 12 billion to 13 billion yuan," said Zhang Xin, chief economist of the National Climate Change Strategy Research and International Cooperation Center.