The first Chinese offset credits were transferred in the country’s emerging carbon markets on Monday, after trading firm Treasure Carbon bought 200,000 CCERs from state-owned power company Longyuan, the China Emissions Exchange in Guangzhou announced.

The deal marks the first time CCERs have been transferred between company accounts since China’s offset registry went live in January.

Shanghai-based Treasure Carbon will receive the credits in two instalments, paying 19 yuan ($3.03) per unit for the first batch, the exchange said, giving no price information for the second batch.

The agreed price was nearly 2 yuan below the current permit price in Guangdong, which closed at 20.98 yuan on Monday.

Longyuan, a subsidiary of Guodian, one of China’s top five power companies, was awarded the CCERs for emission cuts carried out at a wind farm in Gansu province in the early 2000s, before the project registered with the CDM.

As such, so-called pre-CDM projects cannot be used in the Guangdong market, meaning Treasure Carbon will have to sell them on to a company in one of China’s six other pilot emissions trading schemes.

Beijing and Shanghai have also ruled out the use of pre-CDM offsets.

By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com