Guangdong, China releases “Measures on management of trading for inclusive carbon emission reduction”

On April 6, 2022, the Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province released the “Measures on management of trading for inclusive carbon emission reduction”. The Measures will come into force on May 6, 2022, and the validity is set to 5 years. According to the Article 2 of the Measures, the “system of inclusive carbon emission reduction” is referred as activities that encourage the society to participate in carbon emission reduction, promote the control of greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sinks by using business incentives, policy incentives and trading mechanisms. The Measures also stipulates the application and notification procedures of inclusive carbon emission reduction methodologies, and the declaration and notification procedures of carbon emission reduction. And it also mentions that the carbon emission reduction certified through the inclusive carbon emission reduction projects can be used to offset carbon emissions. According to the Measures, the minimum unit of carbon emission reduction is 1 ton (carbon dioxide equivalent).

Application and notification of inclusive carbon emission reduction methodologies

Inclusive carbon emission reduction methodologies developed by natural persons, corporations, and unincorporated associations can be applied and notified by the following procedures.

• Make an application to the ecological and environment department of the prefecture-level city or higher.
• The methodology will be submitted to the Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province if it is considered to have met the promotion conditions.
• The methodology will be notified to public as soon as it passes the evaluation procedures by an expert committee.

Declaration and notification of carbon emission reduction

Natural persons, corporations, and unincorporated associations can participate in the inclusive carbon emission reduction activities voluntarily and, as the business entity of inclusive carbon emission reduction project, declare the certified carbon emission reductions based on the inclusive carbon emission reduction methodologies according to the following procedures.

• Publicizing key information such as profit distribution to stakeholders in advance before the declaration.
• The publicity period shall not be less than 7 working days.
• Applying for the declaration of certified emission reduction in written form to the ecological and environment department of the prefecture-level city or higher.
• The declaration will be submitted to the Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province after the ecological and environment department of the prefecture-level city or higher finishing the preliminary verification based on inclusive carbon emission reduction methodologies.
• After the declaration passing the verification conducted by the Department of Ecology and Environment of Guangdong Province successfully, the certified carbon emission reduction will be distributed to the participant’s account through the provincial inclusive carbon emission reduction registration system.

Provisions on trading

Trading entities are the business entities of inclusive carbon emission reduction projects and the participates who meet the trading rules of inclusive carbon emission reduction. The certified inclusive carbon emission reduction is can be used to offset carbon emissions in the Guangdong carbon emission trading market. Information such as the scope, total certified amount and trading rules of carbon emission reduction, which can be used for offset, will be announced annually by the Ecology and Environment Department of Guangdong Province.

For the original text of the above Measures, please refer to the following URL (in Simplified Chinese).
http://gdee.gd.gov.cn/shbtwj/content/post_3905563.html