China’s carbon market will achieve rapid development in 2025, with transaction volume hitting a record high

China News Service, Wuhan, September 15 (Reporters Liang Ting and Ruan Yulin) The "National Carbon Market Development Report (2026)" released by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of China in Wuhan on the 15th showed that China's carbon market has entered a new stage of rapid development since 2025. The coverage of the carbon market has continued to expand, its vitality has steadily increased, and it has achieved outstanding results in promoting low-cost carbon reduction and optimizing the energy structure, and has become an important force in the global carbon market system.

China's carbon emissions trading market will expand its industry coverage and greenhouse gas types for the first time in 2025. Data show that in 2025, the annual trading volume of carbon emission quotas in China's carbon emissions trading market will be 235 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 24.36%. The annual trading volume has reached a new high since the opening of the market, and the annual trading volume of carbon emission quotas is 14.63 billion yuan (RMB, the same below). The number of key emission units participating in transactions and the number of transactions throughout the year increased by 39.77% and 75.53% respectively year-on-year.

China's greenhouse gas voluntary emission reduction trading market is ushering in rapid expansion. According to reported data, the annual transaction volume of certified voluntary emission reductions in 2025 is 8.8441 million tons, with a transaction value of 626 million yuan. There were transactions on every trading day throughout the year, and the market buy order volume was nearly 1.5 times the sell order volume.

China's carbon market has achieved outstanding results in promoting low-cost carbon reduction and optimizing the energy structure. Data shows that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the power generation industry in China's carbon emissions trading market has reduced the emission reduction costs of the whole society by approximately 56.8 billion yuan, creating emission reduction benefits of 35.69 billion yuan for 1,173 technologically advanced enterprises. In 2025, China's thermal power generation capacity will be 6.33 trillion kilowatt hours, marking the first decline in ten years.

Relying on the huge market scale and development potential, China's carbon market has an important impact on the global development of carbon trading mechanisms. In recent years, China has carried out extensive bilateral and multilateral carbon market cooperation in areas such as institutional design and market supervision, contributing Chinese wisdom to global climate governance and carbon market mechanism innovation. Among them, China, Brazil and the European Union jointly initiated the establishment of the "Carbon Emissions Trading Market Open Alliance", which currently has 11 members and 18 observers. (over)