China set to relaunch voluntary carbon market

Government publishes new methodologies and regulation for offsets programme that was shelved in 2017

China has signalled its readiness to relaunch its voluntary offsets programme more than six years after shelving the scheme, as it looks to backstop its national emissions trading system (ETS). The voluntary China Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) scheme was launched in 2012 and saw 1,047 projects registered over 2013–17, nearly three-quarters of which were solar, wind, hydropower and rural biogas utilisation developments. Of the total, 287 projects were issued CCER credits. But the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China’s top economic planner, paused registration of new projects in March 2017 due to thin trading and lack of standards in carbon audits. There were more tha