China is the largest carbon emitter in the world – more than the United States and the European Union combined. Its actions are critical to the success of climate change reduction.
China has embarked on an active campaign to introduce innovative financing models to address its carbon emissions. One of those models is the development of a national carbon market, which began in 2013 with the launch of several regional pilot trading markets. It is on pace to become the most extensive carbon trading system in the world.
Carbon Markets Timeline
In September 2020, China announced ambitious carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060 goals. Since then, China has been actively signaling its commitment to carbon neutrality and engaging across government to establish a pathway to achieve its goals including with the institution of the leading group on carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Together with policy-setting, China will need a significant amount of investment as well with some estimates calling for at least 100 trillion yuan annually from 2020 to 2050.