Monthly carbon market update (February 2023)
Activity in China’s national carbon emissions allowance (CEA) market recovered from January’s second-lowest monthly volume on record, totaling over 1.8 million tons for February. Block trades came back from a complete absence in January, accounting for 86% of the February total volume. The majority of the block trade volume came on a single day’s trading on February 24.
Market prices remained stable amid volume swings, suggesting a tepid market sentiment. The daily closing price of open-market transactions moved within a range of 55.00 to 57.00 yuan ($7.91-8.201)per ton for the month, ending February at 55.00 yuan per ton, a 1.8% decline from January. The volume-weighted average price for block trades was 55.81 yuan per ton for the month, less than 1% lower than its open market transaction counterpart. The volume-weighted average price for all trades in February was 55.87 yuan ($8.03) per ton, 0.3% higher than in January.
[1] 1 US$ = 6.9519 RMB, middle price, February 28, 2023, China State Administration of Foreign Exchange. The same exchange rate is used for all other values quoted in US dollars ($) in the newsletter.