China has this week published another 54 projects approved to generate offset credits for the nation’s emissions trading scheme, swelling the portfolio by nearly 20% to 339 projects.

The newly added projects to the NDRC list were mostly given clearance in September and October, but some go as far back as January, without any explanation why they haven’t been published sooner.

The majority of the new projects – 29 – were Category 1 and thus eligible to generate CCERs for the seven pilot markets as well as the national ETS. Combined, these have the capacity to cut emissions nearly 2.4 million tonnes of CO2e annually.

The rest were Category 2 and 3 projects, expecting to receive 2.55 million CCERs.

State-owned power firm Huaneng was one of the major beneficiaries, winning approval for six solar PV projects that will earn it around 230,000 CCERs per year.

The batch also included a rare afforestation project in Jiangxi province, owned by a local developer, which design documents said could generate 242,000 offsets in average per year between 2009 and 2028.

The NDRC also approved 11 rural biogass projects developed by a Beijing-based agricultural firm capable of cutting emissions 530,000 tonnes each year. However, these fell under Category 2, so their eligibility in the national ETS is yet to be decided.

By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com

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