In the golden autumn, on the bank of the Yangtze River. The 2026 China Carbon Market Conference was recently held in Wuhan. Representatives from 27 countries, regions and international organizations gathered here to observe and study the practical achievements of China's carbon market construction and explore the road of green low-carbon cooperation.
Carbon market is an important policy tool to actively respond to climate change and accelerate the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development by using market mechanism. General Secretary Xi Jinping attaches great importance to the construction of the carbon market, emphasizing the need to "strengthen the construction of the national carbon emissions trading market" and "build a more effective, dynamic and internationally influential carbon market".
The "Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" period is the key period for accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development. Accelerating the construction of a unified national carbon market, guiding the optimal allocation of resources with a more effective market mechanism, promoting the deep transformation of traditional industries, and fostering the development of new quality productive forces will continue to stimulate the endogenous power of green low-carbon development in the whole society, and provide more powerful support for actively and steadily promoting carbon peak carbon neutralization and building a beautiful China. Starting the city
with "carbon" and building a two-way carbon reduction pattern
into the factory area of Wuhan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., the blue sky and white clouds are full of vitality and green everywhere. It is hard to imagine the scene of dust and chimneys here. Since entering the carbon emission market, WISCO has continuously promoted environmental protection and technological transformation projects, and the total emission of major pollutants has shown a downward trend. Behind this
"green butterfly change" is the powerful traction of the national carbon market.
"Simply put, the carbon market is to put a price on carbon emissions." Yi Xiang, chief of low-carbon energy-saving technology of Wuhan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., said that the state delimits annual carbon emission quotas for enterprises every year, and enterprises reduce emissions through technological transformation and consumption reduction. Surplus quotas can be listed and traded for cash, while excessive carbon emissions need to be purchased at their own expense to fill the gap.
WISCO is one of the typical enterprise representatives included in the national carbon market. According to the data released at the China Carbon Market Conference, by the end of August this year, 3680 key emission enterprises had been included in the national carbon market, with a cumulative turnover of 961 million tons and a turnover of 656.
Comrades in charge of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment said that in the past five years, the "four beams and eight pillars" system of the national carbon market had been basically completed. The overall improvement of market vitality and efficiency, the continuous consolidation of data quality and the deepening of international exchanges and cooperation have played an important role in accelerating the comprehensive green transformation of economic and social development and actively and steadily promoting carbon peak and carbon neutralization.
Climate change concerns the future of mankind, and controlling carbon emissions is the common responsibility of mankind.
To fulfill the "double carbon" commitment, China has actively explored market mechanisms to solve the problem of emission reduction. On July 16, 2021, the national carbon emissions trading market officially launched online trading, the first batch of power generation enterprises included more than 2000, carbon emissions exceeded 4 billion tons. This means that China's carbon market will become the largest carbon market in the world as soon as it is launched.
The national carbon emission trading market adopts the two-city synergy mode of "Wuhan Registration-Shanghai Trading". The Shanghai Environmental Energy Exchange is responsible for matching transactions in the carbon market and transmitting the transaction data to the National Carbon Emission Registration and Settlement System in Wuhan after closing. The latter is responsible for the registration of rights, transaction settlement and performance clearance. Over the past
five years, China has continuously improved the carbon emission market trading system. The national carbon market has been expanded to steel, cement, aluminum smelting and other industries to achieve effective control of more than 65% of the country's carbon dioxide emissions.
While the mandatory carbon market is expanding steadily, the voluntary carbon market is becoming more and more active. The national greenhouse gas voluntary emission reduction trading market was launched in January 2024, and by the end of August this year, 41 voluntary emission reduction projects had been registered, with a turnover of 21.7068 million tons and a turnover of 17
. The national carbon emission trading market and the national greenhouse gas voluntary emission reduction trading market together constitute China's carbon market system, and have entered a new stage of rapid development, playing an increasingly prominent role in supporting the goal of carbon peak and carbon neutrality, and becoming an important policy tool for China to actively respond to climate change and accelerate green transformation. To release the dividends
of industrial development by
"carbon" efficiency, citizens ride shared bicycles, record carbon emission reduction through mobile phone applications; emission enterprises obtain quotas through paid bidding, improve and enhance production efficiency; financial institutions innovate carbon quota pledge loans, and empower enterprises to transform and relieve difficulties.. In daily production and life, a series of seemingly independent scenes are closely connected through the national carbon market system. Yin Jun, chairman of
Carbon Emission Registration and Settlement (Wuhan) Co., Ltd., introduced that in the past five years, the carbon trading mechanism has effectively leveraged the green transformation and development of the industry, and played an obvious guiding role in controlling greenhouse gas emissions and promoting the optimization and adjustment of energy structure. In the Jianghan Plain in
autumn, rice is harvested and returned to the warehouse, and trees are tended and pruned. In Hubei Huadian Xiangyang Power Generation Co., Ltd., the largest thermal power plant in Northwest Hubei, the former agricultural and forestry waste straw and sawdust are becoming the "golden key" for this old thermal power enterprise to reduce emissions and increase income.
"In the past, if the carbon quota was insufficient, we had to buy it from the market. After switching to biomass fuel, we sold the surplus quota with a cumulative income of more than 25 million yuan, and the biochar produced by combustion was processed into carbon-based compound fertilizer, which could increase the income by hundreds of thousands of yuan." Company chairman Tang Pingliang said. The National Carbon Market Development Report (2026) released at
the conference disclosed a carbon market "incentive" power generation industry "carbon reduction performance bill": Over the past five years, the power generation industry in the national carbon emission trading market has reduced the cost of emission reduction by about 56.8 billion yuan. Creating emission reduction benefits for 1173 technologically advanced enterprises 356.
The carbon market has also opened up new tracks and injected new momentum into local green development. Mohe Forestry Bureau
of Daxing'anling Forestry Group Company is located at the northernmost end of the motherland, with an operating area of 600000 hectares and a forest coverage rate of 92. Xin Lingxu, director of Mohe Forestry Bureau, said at the forum of the General Assembly that the local government seized the opportunity of the carbon market and completed the registration of the first national certified voluntary emission reduction afforestation carbon sequestration project in August 2025. Estimated total emission reduction of 240000 tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to the current open market transaction price, the valuation is more than 24 million yuan, after the successful transaction can bring a considerable income for the development of forest areas.
Looking at the whole country, the ecological dividends brought by the carbon market are constantly released. Gao Hu, deputy director of the National Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction Center of
the National Development and Reform Commission, introduced at the conference that the "14th Five-Year Plan" national energy consumption intensity and carbon emission intensity reduction targets were successfully completed, laying a solid foundation for the "15th Five-Year Plan" period to carry out double control of carbon emissions. With
"carbon" to promote green, spread the beautiful Chinese background
into the environmental co-disposal production line of Huaxin Building Materials Group, located on the Yangtze River in Huangshi, Hubei Province, the central control platform displays real-time dynamic data such as flue gas indicators and pollutant emissions. This self-developed intelligent system integrates more than 100 concrete stations and aggregate factories along the Yangtze River, and converts millions of tons of solid waste such as domestic waste and municipal sludge into heat energy for production every year, replacing traditional coal consumption. Since the system was put into use, enterprises have reduced carbon dioxide emissions by more than 2 million tons annually.
Huaxin Building Materials Group was included in the Hubei carbon emissions trading pilot market in 2014 and in the national carbon emissions trading market in 2025. Huangshi, Hubei Province, where it is located, is a traditional heavy industrial city, once known as the "light grey city" because of its heavy pollution. In recent years, by promoting 42 key emission enterprises in the steel and cement industries to participate in carbon market trading and promoting the three major defense battles of blue sky, clear water and pure land, the city's ecological quality index has been maintained for many years.
Green transformation is the only way to cope with climate change and a new engine for economic and social development. In the Outline of
the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan, "Accelerating the Comprehensive Green Transformation of Economic and Social Development and Building a Beautiful China" is a separate chapter, which calls for speeding up the adjustment and optimization of industrial structure, energy structure and transportation structure to ensure that the target of carbon peak is achieved on schedule. In the first year of the
15th Five-Year Plan, the green low-carbon transformation has taken a new and solid step-since
this year, the state has continuously improved the system of double control of total carbon emissions and intensity. "Opinions on Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction at a Higher Level and with Higher Quality", "Comprehensive Evaluation and Assessment Measures for Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutralization" and "Action Plan for Carbon Peak in the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan" have been issued one after another, and the work of carbon peak in the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan has been fully deployed. Among them, systematic arrangements have also been made to give full play to the role of the market mechanism for energy conservation and carbon reduction.
At present, the application scenarios of certified voluntary emission reduction continue to expand, and large-scale events such as the National Stadium (Bird's Nest) concert use certified voluntary emission reduction to offset carbon emissions, attracting the broad public to participate in green low-carbon action. In March
this year, the first mangrove construction project in the national greenhouse gas voluntary emission reduction trading market, the Mangrove Vegetation Restoration Project in Yantian Township and Changchun Town, Xiapu County, Fujian Province, was registered to explore a replicable and popularizable practical path for the realization of marine carbon sink value, which has become an important milestone in the field of marine ecosystem protection and restoration in China.
Looking forward to the future, the "15th Five-Year Plan" period is the key period to achieve the carbon peak, and also the key stage to build a beautiful China, expand the scope and improve the quality, and achieve the fundamental improvement of the ecological environment. The main responsible comrades of the Ministry of
Ecology and Environment said at the conference that they would speed up the construction of a more effective, dynamic and internationally influential carbon market to provide important support for actively responding to climate change and building a beautiful China.
It is understood that the next step, the national carbon emissions trading market will be expanded to petrochemical, chemical and other high-emission industries on the basis of the existing four industries, to achieve effective control of about 80% of the country's carbon dioxide emissions. By 2027, the national carbon emission trading market will basically cover major emission industries in the industrial sector, and the national greenhouse gas voluntary emission reduction trading market will achieve full coverage of key areas. By 2030, a national carbon emission trading market based on total quota control and combining free and paid distribution will be basically established, and a carbon pricing mechanism with obvious emission reduction effect, sound rules and reasonable price level will be formed. With a clear
blueprint, China's carbon market construction will continue to move forward and inject institutional momentum into the green and low-carbon transformation.
Steadfast. Striving towards the goal of "double carbon", China is taking more solid and effective actions to promote carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion and growth, and constantly cultivate the green background of high-quality development.
浙公网安备33010802003254号