Assessing barriers to the internationalization of China’s certified emission reductions (CCERs): a Delphi survey

ABSTRACT

China’s certified emission reductions (CCERs) are generated under the China GHG Voluntary Emission Reduction Programme. In 2020, this programme was approved by the technical advisory board of the Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA) set up under the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), making CCERs an eligible reduction unit to be used for compensating emissions stemming from the aviation sector. While such an achievement represents a cornerstone in China’s strategy on internationalizing CCERs, there remains significant practical and quality-related issues which prevent CCERs from playing a more significant role in the international carbon market. To identify these issues and understand their relative importance, we employed a Delphi approach to elicit consensus views from 17 experienced CCER practitioners on potential issues and adjustments needed for the improvement of international recognition, acceptance, and the use of CCERs. We identified defects in eight key areas: social and environmental risk management; reversal of emissions reductions; pricing mechanisms; verification systems; evaluation systems for sustainable development contributions; transaction channels for international actors; CCER methodologies; and legal and asset attributes. Based on these findings, the authors make policy recommendations for improving the China GHG Voluntary Emission Reduction Programme.

Key policy insights

• Being selected as eligible offset credits for CORSIA does not guarantee that CCERs can contribute significantly to compensating aviation emissions.

• To increase the degree of internationalization of CCERs, the governing body of CCERs should address both quality-related and practical issues.

• Substantial efforts should be made towards managing environmental and social risks and the risk of emission reversal of CCERs.

KEYWORDS:

• CCER
• China
• carbon offset
• CORSIA
• carbon neutrality
• aviation sector

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The wide range of estimation is due to that Covid-19 makes the global aviation emissions growth become much less certain.

2 The CORSIA has three phases: a pilot phase (2021–2023); a first phase (2024–2026); and a second phase (2027–2035). In the pilot and first phase, participation is voluntary. Entering the second phase, all ICAO member states will be involved mandatory.

3 The 11 design elements that are the minimum requirements which are used to screen carbon crediting programmes’ design so as to determine whether carbon credits developed under these programmes are CORSIA eligible. The eight integrity assessment standards, on the other hand, are used to ensure whether the carbon credits have met environmental and social integrity.

4 The names of NDRC approved verification and certification agencies China Classification are: Society; Environmental Protection Foreign Cooperation Centre; Jiangsu Xinglin Carbon Industry; Zhengzhou Nonferrous Metal Research Institute; National Building Material Inspection and Certification Group; Forestry Science and Technology Information Research Institute; Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences; Shenzhen Huatao International Certification; Beijing Zhongchuang Carbon Investment Technology; China Quality Certification Centre; Guangzhou CEPREI Certification Centre; Central United (Beijing) Certification Centre.