Skip to main content

How Individuals Can Get Involved in China’s CCER Market: A Practical Guide to What Is Possible

China’s CCER market is open again, but many people misunderstand one thing: an ordinary individual cannot simply open a personal CCER trading account like opening a stock account.

If you want to trade CCERs now, you generally need to participate through a company, institution, project owner, or other eligible organization. 

This is a guide for those who really want to involved in China's carbon market.

 Figure 1. Decision tree for opening an CCER account

Step 1: Check whether you are eligible

Before opening an account, first check what type of participant you are. The current account-opening types include:

  • National key emission entity 
  • Local key emission entity 
  • Project owner 
  • Other legal person or organization

The “other” category still refers to legal persons and other organizations, not ordinary personal investors. The applicant should be legally registered in China, validly existing, have good credit records, and not be prohibited or restricted from voluntary emission reduction trading. 

Practical takeaway: If you are only an individual with no company or organization, this guide is mainly useful for understanding the market, not for opening a personal trading account.

Step 2: Know which account you need

For new CCER trading, you need a joint account opening: Registration account + Trading account

The registration account records CCER ownership, transfer, and cancellation. The trading account is used for market transactions.

Figure 2. Registration account vs trading account

Step 3: Prepare your documents

Before applying, prepare the following materials.

Basic materials:

  • Business license or other qualification document 
  • Legal representative / responsible person ID 
  • Registration account representative authorization letter 
  • Initiating representative ID 
  • Confirming representative ID 
  • Registration system contact ID 
  • Trading representative recommendation letter 
  • Trading agreement, including risk disclosure

Additional materials if applicable:
  • Foreign investment proof, if foreign-invested or joint venture 
  • Project design document, if applying as a project owner 
  • Project ownership proof, authorization letter, or transfer agreement

Step 4: Register as a visitor

Go to the official national voluntary emission reduction trading system:

https://www.ccer.com.cn

Click Visitor Registration. You need to set Username, Password, Chinese mobile phone number and Verification code.

Step 5: Submit account-opening information

After visitor registration, fill in the application information. 

Figure 3. Screenshot of the account-opening information submission page in the CCER trading system, shown with Google Translate.

‼️This is why the process is not designed as a simple individual account application. It requires organization-level information and authorized representatives. 

After submission, the application goes through several review steps. The current notice describes the process as:

  1. Submit online application 
  2. Trading institution conducts initial review 
  3. Mail paper materials after initial review 
  4. Trading institution conducts re-review 
  5. Registration institution conducts final review 
  6. Account information is issued after approval

After initial review, the trading institution will notify the trading representative to mail paper application materials. After re-review, materials are transferred to the registration institution for review. 

Step 7: Check application progress

During the review period, use the visitor account to check progress.

The official guide shows four review stages:

  1. Trading system initial review 
  2. Trading system re-review and paper material mailing 
  3. Registration system final review
  4. Account opening completed
If the application is rejected, revise the registration information and submit again. 

Step 8: Pay fees if required

After approval, download the trading system client and log in with the trading account information.

If your account type is project owner or other, you need to pay:

  • Account-opening fee: RMB 2,000 
  • Annual fee: RMB 1,000

The annual fee is valid for one year. If the next annual fee is not paid before expiry, the trading account may be suspended.


Figure 4. Practical workflow for opening a CCER account

Common mistakes to avoid

  • Do not assume that you can open a personal account.
  • Do not start the application before preparing stamped institutional documents.
  • Do not confuse a project owner account with a general trading account.
  • Do not ignore the paper-material mailing step.
  • Do not treat buying “carbon-neutral” products as the same thing as holding CCERs.

Reference

[1] https://www.ccer.com.cn/upload//atta/20250616//1750043194958.pdf

[2] https://www.mee.gov.cn/xxgk2018/xxgk/xxgk02/202310/t20231020_1043694.html












































Comments











Post a Comment




















Popular posts from this blog





















China’s Carbon Removal Transition: Insights from the 3rd Edition of the State of CDR Report




























The 2026 edition of The State of Carbon Dioxide Removal  offers a useful moment to reassess China’s role in the global carbon dioxide removal (CDR) landscape. The picture is more nuanced than a simple story of leadership or lagging behind. China is already central to current global CDR, but mostly through conventional, land-based removals. Its next challenge is to move from large-scale forestry-based removals toward a more diversified, durable and policy-supported CDR portfolio. 1 | China is already a major CDR actor — but mainly through conventional CDR China is one of the world’s largest emitters, but it is also one of the largest contributors to current global CDR. This reflects the structure of today’s CDR system: global removals are still overwhelmingly dominated by conventional methods, especially afforestation and reforestation. In this sense, China’s CDR position is not marginal. Bookkeeping models suggest that China contributes more than 500 MtCO₂ per year through afforestatio...




















Post a Comment









Read more






























Glossary




























                     Carbon dioxide removal is becoming an important part of climate policy, carbon markets, and net-zero discussions. This glossary is a simple guide to the key concepts behind carbon dioxide removal. It is designed for readers who want to understand the basic vocabulary before reading reports, policy documents, or market updates on CDR. This page will be updated regularly as new terms, technologies, and policy discussions emerge.             Core Concepts          Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR)      Human activities that remove CO₂ from the atmosphere and store it durably in geological, terrestrial, ocean reservoirs, or products.             Emissions Reductions      Actions that reduce new greenhouse gas emissions released into the atmosphere. CDR does not replace emissions reductions; it complements them.             Net Zero CO₂ Emissions      A state in which CO₂ emissions are balanced by CO₂ removals, so net CO₂ emissions equal zero.             Gross CO₂ Emiss...




















Post a Comment









Read more






























碳移除术语




























      Core Concepts｜核心概念          Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) ｜ 二氧化碳移除 / 碳移除      从大气中移除 CO₂，并将其较长期储存在地质、陆地、海洋储库或产品中的人类活动。             Emissions Reductions ｜ 减排      减少新增温室气体排放，是实现气候目标的首要手段。CDR 不能替代减排，而是与减排共同发挥作用。             Net Zero CO₂ Emissions ｜ CO₂ 净零排放      CO₂ 排放量与 CO₂ 移除量相互抵消后的净排放为零。也就是说，仍可能存在排放，但需要有相应的移除量来平衡。             Gross CO₂ Emissions ｜ CO₂ 总排放      在扣除碳移除之前，人类活动释放到大气中的 CO₂ 总量。             Gross CO₂ Removals ｜ CO₂ 总移除      在与排放量相抵消之前，从大气中移除的 CO₂ 总量。             Residual Emissions ｜ 残余排放      即使经过深度减排后仍难以完全消除的排放。实现净零时，这部分排放通常需要通过碳移除来抵消。             Paris Temperature Goal ｜ 巴黎温控目标      《巴黎协定》中将全球升温控制在远低于 2°C，并努力限制在 1.5°C 的长期气候目标。             Conventional CDR ｜ 传统碳移除      已经较成熟、部署规模较大的碳移除方法，通常与森林、土地、土壤和木制品有关。             Novel CDR ｜ 新型碳移除      目前部署规模较小、技术成熟度较低，但通常具有较长储存时间的新兴碳移除方法，例如 BECCS、DACCS、生物炭和增强风化。             CDR Gap ｜ 碳移除缺口      各国承诺的碳移除规模与符合巴黎温控目标情景所需碳移除规模之间的差距。             Durability ｜ 碳储存持久性      碳被储存后在较长时间内不重新释放回大气的能力。储存越持久，碳移除的气候效果越可靠。             Additionali...




















Post a Comment









Read more