This past Saturday (Feb 4), Wang Naixiang, Chairman of China Beijing Environment Exchange (CBEEX), said at the launch of the Beijing Green Exchange that CBEEX has been actively building the China Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) Trading Centre and has completed the development of nationally unified voluntary emission reduction registration and trading system, both of which are ready for acceptance by the authorities. Being the only designated venue for carbon trading in Beijing, CBEEX will continue to strengthen its three core capabilities of carbon pricing, carbon quantification and carbon finance, and strive to build a public platform for carbon management and a national green financial infrastructure.
The CCER, the voluntary trading system, was launched in 2012 but suspended in March 2017 by NDC due to low trading volume. A compliance-based national carbon trading market was launched in July 2017 (Emissions Trading System).
The EU tried to play catch-up with the US’ green subsidies plan Inflation Reduction Act as Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission, announced the launch of Green Deal Industrial Plan in her open speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos on February 1. The new green subsidy program plan is targeted to enhance the competitiveness of the Europe’s net zero industries.
The new plan seeks to help the EU reach its goal to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 and reach the first intermediate target of reducing net greenhouse gas emission by at least 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. The plan will be based on four pillars: a predictable and simplified regulatory environment, speeding up access to finance, enhancing skills, and open trade for resilient supply chains.
China is expanding registration-based IPO mechanism to all of its stock markets to facilitate listings and corporate fundraising on Feb 1. Under the new mechanism, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) will only ensure IPOs are in line with national policies, leaving stock exchanges to vet IPOs, instead of the previous approval-based system with the CSRC holding the approval power. This expands the coverage from four years of pilot at start-up board ChiNext and Beijing Stock Exchange to main boards in Shanghai and Shenzhen (Previous rollout: Shanghai’s STAR market in 2019, Shenzhen’s ChiNext in 2020 and Beijing Stock Exchange in 2021).
Six Chinese securities firms received “notice of no objection” from CSRC on Jan 31 regarding their participation in carbon emission trading. They include: Orient Securities, Shenwan Hongyuan, CSC Financial, Huatai Securities, CICC and Citic Securities. The no-objection notice indicates that the CSRC has no objection to these six securities companies' participation in carbon emission trading on legal trading venues in China, which marks the gradual opening of securities firms' participation in carbon emission trading. Prior to the notice, Citic Securities and Guotai Junan had already received notice to participate in the pilot carbon market. Currently, only power companies are allowed to trade on the carbon market in China.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC),following pushback from investors, companies and lawmaker, is reconsidering its climate-disclosure plan, according to Wall Street Journal’s report on Feb 3. The SEC first released the proposal last March of 2022 to enhance and standardize climate-related disclosures for investors. Sources say the SEC is considering a softening of planned rules requiring companies to disclose the effects of extreme weather and other costs related to global warming. Amazon.com Inc. said the proposed disclosures of items such as lost revenues and costs not incurred because of climate-related factors “would require companies to keep a second set of accounting books.”