Week at a glance
- The total weekly trading on China’s national Carbon Emissions Allowance (CEA) market quieted significantly from the previous week to its lowest volume since mid-November at 4,583,731 tons. Block trades accounted for 87.9% of the total volume. The week’s closing price of open market transactions set an all-time high of 57.59 yuan/ton ($9.03/ton), up 6.22% from the previous week. Also setting all-time highs were the volume-weighted weekly average block and open market transaction prices. Including both types of trades, the total volume-weighted average price for the week was up by a robust 9.44% to 53.78 yuan/ton ($7.43/ton), the highest since the early days of the market of July and August.
- The total weekly volume of the China certified emission reductions (CCER) markets dried up to 200,000 tons, all of which took place on a single day (January 4) on the Shanghai market.
- On December 30, 2021, China’s state-owned enterprise supervision body, the State- owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), issued its Guiding Opinion on Promoting High-Quality Progress Towards Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutral in Central Government-Owned Enterprises (“the Guiding Opinion”). While stating the same quantitative goals outlined in the “master working guideline”, jointly issued by the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party and the State Council on October 25, 2021, the Guiding Opinion raised some goals over the “master working guideline”. In addition, the Guiding Opinion requests central government- owned enterprises move forward with the “upgrade and transformation of coal consumption” and improve the proportion of non-fossil fuel sources in the energy mix with an emphasis on hydro, nuclear, and hydrogen power development.