Chinese President Xi Jinping delivered a speech at the 75th general debate of the UN General Assembly on September 22, 2020, and said that, “China will enhance the state’s independent contribution and adopt more effective policies and measures to make sure that the carbon emissions will reach a peak by 2030, and achieve carbon neutralization by 2060”.

The Measures for the Administration of Carbon Emission Trading (Trial Implementation) has been deliberated and adopted at the ministerial meeting of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment on December 25, 2020 and will come into force on February 1, 2021.

The document specifies that Chinese Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) refers to the greenhouse gas emission reduction effects of renewable energy, forestry carbon sequestration, methane utilization and other projects in China that are quantitatively certified and registered in the national greenhouse gas voluntary emission reduction trading registration system and key emission units can use CCER offset the payment of carbon emission quotas annually. The offsetting proportion shall not exceed 5% of the carbon emission quota to be paid. Relevant regulations shall be formulated separately by the Ministry of Ecological and Environment.

The development process of CCER project mainly includes six steps, including project document design, project approval, project registration (filing), project implementation and monitoring, emission reduction verification and certification, and emission reduction issuance.

In the whole process of project development, it is also necessary to consider the development difficulty of different projects, the communication process between project owners and consulting agencies and third-party organizations, the clarification of non-compliance in approval and certification procedures, and the cost and time of preparing approval, certification report and internal review.

Generally, a CCER project starting from development to the final issuance of emission reduction takes at least eight months, including at least five months of the project development, and 3-6 months for the national competent department to organize experts to evaluate and approve the project.

Therefore, if the photovoltaic power generation enterprises want to get the huge dividend of CCER replacement in the initial stage of the national carbon trading market, they need to plan for the project development as soon as possible.