China's national carbon emissions trading market commenced operation on July 16, 2021. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

By WANG Xiaoxia

To promote carbon peaking and carbon neutrality prudently, China needs a larger carbon trading market with unified rules.

Jiang Pengju, a member of the national committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the top political advisory body, shared his proposal for the upcoming CPPCC session during a recent interview with Science and Technology Daily.

Jiang, who is also deputy mayor of Changzhou, Jiangsu province in east China, and chairman of the Changzhou Committee of the China Zhigong Party, will propose expanding the carbon trading market at the annual CPPCC session, which kicks off on March 4.

China's national carbon emissions trading market commenced operation in July 2021, a milestone in achieving China's emission reduction targets. In the past two years, it has made remarkable progress.

Apart from the national carbon market, there are eight local carbon markets in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong. However, they have different trading rules and regulations and the allocation of responsibilities in financial regulations is ambiguous, Jiang said.

Therefore he proposes establishing a unified carbon emissions trading market nationwide, and coordinating the trading systems of the national and local markets, as well as improving the regulatory mechanism of carbon finance.

As the carbon market expands, the market transaction mechanism will guide the green transition of carbon-intensive sectors and energy consumption structure, encourage innovation in green and low-carbon technologies, and boost green and low-carbon economy, Jiang pointed out.

With China being one of the largest carbon emitters, its carbon trading market will play an important role in global climate governance, he added.

Its successful operation will help reduce global carbon emissions and promote global green and low-carbon development. At the same time, it will demonstrate the effectiveness of the market mechanism in climate governance, and the experience can be shared by other countries and regions, especially other developing countries, Jiang explained.