China to tighten control in domestic afforestation carbon market with new measures

The Chinese government plans to introduce a series of measures to enhance control and offer guidance for afforestation project developers and validation and verification bodies (VVBs) in the relaunched China Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) domestic voluntary carbon market, a government official said late March 12.

China paused CCER project registrations in 2017 to refine regulatory frameworks. CCER project registrations resumed in late 2024 under the new carbon crediting methodologies.

Earlier in March, China issued the first batch of new CCERs, totaling 9.5 million mtCO2e. However, the CCERs were issued from offshore wind and solar thermal projects, as afforestation projects have been impacted by integrity issues raised during the public consultation phase. The government's initiative to tackle this issue is a positive step toward restoring confidence in China's opaque carbon market.

"The purpose of setting the public consultation process is to identify problems in advance and leverage the public scrutiny to help us filter high-quality projects," Zhang Xin, chief economist at the National Centre for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC), said in an official interview with state media China Environment News, the mouthpiece of the country's Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

China's listed afforestation CCER projects have been criticized during the public consultation for several issues, including inaccurate estimations of emission reductions, violations of local communities' rights, illegitimate land use, and duplication of afforestation areas with projects in the international voluntary carbon market.

Zhang said introducing the public consultation process marks significant progress in the development of China's carbon market.

Through transparent information disclosure and public feedback, project developers can no longer fabricate their project documents merely for formality, Zhang said, adding that developers are now compelled to prepare their project documents and report their emission reductions with much greater rigor.

To address the issues identified during the consultation, he said the government will implement a series of measures, including developing a handbook for project developers and VVBs and requiring VVBs to cross-check various data sources to ensure integrity.

He said the government will also support project developers in consolidating small projects into a large one to streamline the project development and management processes and reduce system costs.

Taming chaos

Zhang said the handbook will address all common issues encountered in the development of afforestation carbon projects and offer more specific technical guidance for project developers and VVBs, aiding them in better developing, managing and supervising the projects.

When validating a project's eligibility and verifying its emission reductions, VVBs have been instructed to cross-check various data sources, including remote-sensing satellite data, the government's field survey data and official archives concerning forest lands.

For instance, VVBs should utilize satellite data to ensure that a project's area has not undergone any afforestation activity in the past three years and is eligible for CCER project development. Additionally, they should review field survey data to verify the land's historical status and examine official archives to identify any forest right registration.

"During the validation and verification process, no conclusion will be drawn based on a single piece of data," Zhang said, adding that the random sampling method will also be used to conduct on-site inspections of the afforestation areas.

"This is the only way to guarantee that the projects truly meet our standards, avoid falsified reporting, safeguard the credibility and environmental benefits, and ensure consistency with international common rules," he said. "Such stringent requirements will also play a positive role in enhancing the international recognition of China's voluntary carbon market."