China Data: Carbon Emission Allowance price at $8.76/mtCO2e May 27

The daily weighted average price of a Carbon Emission Allowance, or CEA, under China's national carbon market was at Yuan 59/mtCO2e ($8.76/mtCO2e) on May 27, and weekly trade volume totaled 551,351 mtCO2e, according to data from Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange, or SEEE.

The weekly trade volume improved significantly from last week's level at 200,050 mtCO2e. Among the 551,351 mtCO2e of trade volume in the week ended May 27, block trades occupied most of the volume at 530,000 mtCO2e. The open market's liquidity remained low, with weekly trade volume at 21,351 mtCO2e.

The CEA price and volume data are published by SEEE, which currently hosts the online carbon trading platform for China. It does not provide information on bid, offers and counterparties.

In the voluntary carbon market, weekly trade volume of China Certified Emission Reductions, or CCERs, totaled 240,110 mtCO2e in the week ended May 27, improving by 41.3% from last week's level, according to Singapore-based digital exchange MetaVerse Green Exchange, or MVGX.

SEEE accounted for most of the weekly total volume and reported a weekly volume-weighted average price of Yuan 45/mtCO2e ($6.67/mtCO2e), MVGX data showed. Sichuan United Environment Exchange also saw increasing trading activities, and reported highest weekly average price at Yuan 71.02/mtCO2e ($10.54/mtCO2e), MVGX data showed.

CCERs are considered eligible under the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation, or CORSIA. Platts assessed CORSIA-eligible carbon credit price at $4.85/mtCO2e on May 27, according to data from S&P Global.

Meanwhile, in energy transition and carbon market, recent highlights included –

• Xie Zhenhua, China's Special Envoy on Climate, announced that the nation will conserve, restore and plant 70 billion trees from 2021 to 2030 at the World Economic Forum in Davos on May 24. This announcement implies the potential growth in China's nature-based CCER supplies in this decade.
• Currently, about 60 million mtCO2e of CCERs have been used to offset emissions of companies that enrolled into China's national and pilot carbon markets, and in particular, 34 million mtCO2e of CCERs have been used to offset emissions of companies enrolled into the national compliance emission trading scheme, Zhang Xin, chief economist with government-backed think tank National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation, disclosed at an industrial forum on May 26. The respective CCER trading activities have brought about Yuan 2 billion ($297 million) of climate finance, he added.
• China's Fudan University launched its latest CEA and CCER pricing forecasts, which showed the CEA mid-prices reaching Yuan 61.54/mtCO2e ($9.13/mtCO2e) in June 2022 and Yuan 68.98/mtCO2e ($10.24/mtCO2e) in December 2022, and the national CCER mid-price reaching Yuan 59.42/mtCO2e ($8.82/mtCO2e) in June 2022, the university's official social media account said May 29.

TABLE1: China Carbon Market Weekly Prices and Trade Volumes

TABLE 2: China Carbon Market Highest and Lowest Prices and Trade Volumes