Recently, the pilot cross-border carbon trading settlement program jointly launched by Shenzhen Green Exchange (SGE) and Core Climate Global Limited (Core Climate), a subsidiary of Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX), completed its first settlement of cross-border transactions in Shenzhen carbon allowances. CECEP (Hong Kong) Investment Co., Ltd. (CECEPHK) participated as an overseas market participant, completing a transaction with a Chinese mainland institution.
The pilot settlement was conducted under a memorandum of understanding signed by HKEX and SGE in October 2023. It aims to support China's dual carbon goals of peaking carbon emissions and achieving carbon neutrality, respond to policy guidance encouraging the exploration of cross-border carbon trading and settlement between Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, and provide practical experience for the continued development of regional carbon markets.
The successful completion of the first cross-border carbon trading settlement marks a substantive step toward greater connectivity between the carbon markets of Shenzhen and Hong Kong, while establishing a replicable settlement model for wider adoption in cross-border carbon trading. Leveraging CECEP's strengths across the entire energy conservation and environmental protection value chain, CECEPHK played an active role in the transaction. Its participation has helped put the Shenzhen-Hong Kong cross-border carbon market mechanism into practice and generated valuable experience for future overseas investment in Chinese mainland's carbon market and the global opening of its carbon assets. These efforts carry positive significance for advancing cross-border cooperation in China's green and low-carbon sectors, as well as promoting the development and further opening up of a unified national carbon market.
