The full name of CCER is Chinese Certified Emission Reduction, that is, the national certified voluntary carbon emission reduction, which refers to the greenhouse gas emission reduction registered in the national voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction transaction registration system after the quantitative certification of the greenhouse gas emission reduction effect of renewable energy, forestry carbon sink, methane utilization and other projects in China. CCER is a kind of emission reduction credit, which can be used by emission control enterprises to pay off and offset the actual carbon emissions when fulfilling the contract, which is conducive to promoting greenhouse gas emission reduction and helping to realize the carbon neutrality strategy.
At present, there are 2871 CCER projects approved and publicized in China, including 861 registered projects and 254 signed and issued projects. The project types include renewable energy utilization projects, agricultural projects, carbon sequestration and afforestation projects, etc. The top three project types in terms of filing and issuance are wind power generation, solar power generation, and pig manure biogas utilization. The project locations are most concentrated in the northwest and southwest regions, and the average development time from approval and publicity to completion of emission reduction issuance is 1.68 years.
The development of CCER related policies can be summarized into three stages: the initial establishment stage (2012-2017), the NDRC as the regulatory authority, CCER was traded in the pilot carbon market, the project approval was suspended in 2017, and the market turned into stock trading. In the adjustment and improvement stage (2018-2023), in 2018, the ecological environmental protection institutions will be reformed, the carbon market supervision responsibilities will be fulfilled, the national greenhouse gas voluntary emission reduction trading system will be established, and the guarantee of trading infrastructure will be strengthened. In the restart stage (from January 2024 to now), the Interim Regulations on the Administration of Carbon Emission Trading was issued, and the legal protection of the carbon market was further strengthened.
On January 22, 2024, the launching ceremony of the national greenhouse gas voluntary emission reduction trading market was held in Beijing. Compared with the CCER project development process before 2017, the project filing was adjusted to project publicity, simplifying the process and improving the transparency of project information. The new regulations of CCER have strict requirements on the compliance of emission reduction, and the declaration of projects with carbon emission reduction benefits needs to verify the "additionality", "authenticity" and "uniqueness" of emission reduction. At present, no institution has obtained the qualification of CCER project approval and emission reduction verification institution through the approval of CNCA.
CCER transactions adopt listing agreement, block agreement, one-way bidding and other transaction methods that meet the requirements, and take the "price of carbon dioxide equivalent per ton" as the pricing unit. At present, the national voluntary greenhouse gas emission reduction transactions are mainly based on stock CCER transactions. The emission reductions approved before 2017 can still be used to offset the carbon emission quota clearing in the national carbon emission trading market before December 31, 2024. After the opening of the CCER market, the average transaction price of CCER has shown an upward trend, which is good for the industries that can apply for CCER.
With the increasing global attention to climate change, the carbon market has a broad prospect.
As an important part of China's carbon market, CCER has great investment potential: 1) From the industrial side, with the improvement of carbon emission management requirements, CCER may become an important emission reduction tool for high carbon emission industries such as steel, cement, and electricity, which will benefit renewable energy and agricultural projects; 2) From the financial side, CCER promotes financial development, such as green bonds, green loans and other financial instruments.
Risk tip: the speed of qualification approval of third-party institutions is not as fast as expected, the amount of CCER approval and issuance is not as fast as expected, and the carbon price fluctuates.
