To comprehensively and systematically review the progress and achievements of China’s green energy certificate (GEC) market in 2025, the Electric Power Qualification Management Center under the National Energy Administration compiled the China Green Energy Certificate Development Report (2025). The report systematically summarizes the accomplishments made in 2025 in building China’s GEC institutional framework, issuing and trading GECs, expanding application scenarios, and advancing international mutual recognition of GECs.

The report noted that a total of 2.947 billion GECs were issued nationwide in 2025, of which 1.893 billion were tradable certificates. By project category, conventional hydropower, wind power, solar power and biomass power generation projects remained the primary sources of GEC issuance. The five provincial-level regions with the highest GEC output in 2025 were Yunnan Province, Sichuan Province, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and Hubei Province, each issuing over 130 million GECs. Rich in renewable energy resources, these five regions together accounted for 45.25% of the national total issuance volume.

GEC trading volume hit an all-time high. A total of 930 million GECs were traded nationwide in 2025, surging 108% year-on-year. This total included 680 million standalone GEC transactions and 250 million GECs transacted together with green power. By the end of December 2025, cumulative national GEC trading volume reached 1.483 billion, comprising 995 million standalone trades and 488 million GECs bundled with green power deals.

Standalone cross-provincial GEC trading became increasingly accessible. In 2025, cross-provincial standalone GEC transactions reached 620 million, accounting for 91.20% of all standalone trades. This greatly facilitated the optimal nationwide allocation of green resources and boosted coordinated growth between major energy-producing and energy-consuming provinces. Intra-provincial standalone GEC transactions stood at 59.68 million, making up 8.80% of total standalone trades and mainly catering to local supply-demand matching within provincial borders.

Market participants showed stronger enthusiasm for GEC trading. Around 111,100 consumption entities took part in GEC transactions nationwide in 2025, an increase of 87.52% year-on-year. Among them were 107,900 corporate buyers and 3,129 individual household buyers, with enterprises acting as the dominant consumers of GECs.

China’s GEC trading prices trended upward across the board in 2025. Data from standalone GEC trades shows that the average price of certificates for power generated in 2023 and earlier stood at 0.72 yuan per unit; the average rose to 2.12 yuan per unit for power generated in 2024, and jumped further to 5.57 yuan per unit for power generated in 2025, showing a clear stepped growth. This price surge stems directly from rising recognition of the environmental value of newly issued GECs and robust market demand.

Going forward, China will strive to meet its carbon peaking target on schedule, continuously bolster internal drivers for green development, scale up new energy development, and advance high-quality growth of the GEC market through the following priorities:

These efforts will enable green energy certificates to better support the dual control of carbon emissions, underpin high-quality development of renewable energy, and drive the green transition of the economy and society.