The 3rd meeting of the Project Steering Committee of Support for Emissions Trading Policy Dialogue and Cooperation Between EU and China, Phase2 was chaired jointly by Department of Climate Change, Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) and DG Climate Action (DG CLIMA), European Commission on 1st March 2024, in the hybrid format combining in-person and virtual participants.

Mr. Laurent Bardon, Head of the green transition Section & First Counsellor for Environment and Climate Action, was present and chaired the meeting on behalf of the EU Delegation to China. Deputy Director-General Lu Shize, Climate Change Department of MEE gave the welcome remarks together with Ms. Mette Qunn, Head of Unit ETS(I): Policy Coordination, International Carbon Market, DG CLIMA.

The EU and China exchanged and shared views on the latest development of their respective carbon market. While the second compliance period of China’s ETS has been successfully completed, but there is still room for improvement. The Interim Regulation on the Administration of Carbon Emissions Trading, which is China’s first specific regulation to address climate change was issued recently, providing a strong legal support for the development of China’s national ETS.

The EU has managed to finalise all legislation of the EU Green Deal and is now working hard for its implementation. The new phase of EU ETS II will cover around 12,000 installations with a lot of implementing acts, which the European Commission is working on with Member States. To prevent carbon leakage, the EU also gradually introduces the carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM). The EU will support Member States in designing and implementing their own carbon markets, as well as other countries around the world. The EU looks forward to further cooperation with other international partners in this regard.

Mr. Wang Shu, key expert of the Project gave a presentation on the overall progress of the project implementation and the work plan for the year of 2024. To date, the Project has supported five high-level dialogue exchanges, including policy dialogues, technical workshops and field visits, as well as two Project Steering Committee (PSC) meetings. In terms of capacity building, the Project has supported the power sector to carry out eight online training sessions with more than 1,100 participants. The Project also supported two joint research activities involving the European and Chinese experts to support the development of China’s national ETS. In addition, with the support of both China and the EU, the project has launched a pilot of the innovative training approach "train the trainer".

The 2024 annual work plan has been approved at the meeting. The both sides acknowledged the contribution and achievements of the Project, and expected that the Project can continue to provide support to make EU-China cooperation on ETS more practical and effective, and jointly promote the construction and improvement of China’s national ETS.