An aerial drone photo taken on July 3, 2025 shows a solar power station for agricultural use in the Yi-Hui-Miao autonomous county of Weining, southwest China's Guizhou province. [Photo/Xinhua]

As global leaders and international organizations concluded the 30th U.N. Climate Change Conference, or COP30, all eyes remained focused on China's carbon market, specifically its evolution, strengths and utility for international climate targets.

"China has made a great contribution in developing innovative green technologies and has supported the Global South in responding to climate change," Brazilian Minister of Environment and Climate Change Marina Silva said recently. Here is how China's carbon market development is becoming a force for global change.

First, Beijing has succeeded in developing a carbon market aligned with its national conditions, underscoring a conscious effort to balance high emissions with effective controls. Extending the world's largest market to COP30's global audience – and expanding that reach as the voluntary emissions market grows considerably – is proof of domestic ingenuity aligning closely with global climate progress. China's climate scheme covers critical sectors, spanning aluminum, cement and steel, indicating a multipronged approach to extend coverage across major industries.

This strategy has considerable merits: Oversight of emissions is no longer confined to the power sector but now extends to other major industries, promoting broader regulatory consistency. The fact that China's emissions trading system (ETS) has been receptive to these industries since 2024 suggests Beijing is leading from the front on promoting its utility. Momentum is evident in China's ETS, which now serves as the world's largest scheme in terms of coverage of greenhouse gas emissions. China has also introduced complementary market interventions to aid ETS objectives, with emission caps stretching across companies and top-tier polluters alike.

For many international partners advancing their own carbon markets, China's success offers a mutually beneficial proposition. It provides a model for extracting lessons on market transition, development strategies and leveraging China's strengths. For Beijing, its opening-up policy and high-quality development support lay the groundwork for sharing best practices, including viable green technology interventions highlighted by initiatives such as the Belt and Road. The COP30 gathering, arriving amid intensifying climate pressures and concerns over emissions, receives a powerful endorsement of meaningful change in China's carbon market.

"The carbon market is the most direct way of turning ecological value into economic value," Wang Jun, head of Climate Future China, said in an interview.

Bear in mind that emission controls also require tangible, verifiable interventions that save developing countries the costs of significant capacity-building. Developments in recent weeks have shown China's determination to join the Brazil-led carbon market collective, partnering with the European Union to help fellow states achieve the Paris climate targets. 

Given the value that COP30 has placed on market integration to further climate progress, Beijing's success in leading from the front can inform viable interventions that go beyond rhetoric. Evidence of collective capacity-sharing is visible in the advancement of low-carbon technologies, which generate incentives for broader market inclusion. Since carbon market development varies across states – reflecting differences in resource flows, technological prowess and capital deployment – Beijing's push to extend its development interventions at the forum represents a valuable contribution to progress.

The numbers speak for themselves: In recent months, China's aggregate trading volume on carbon allowances stood in excess of 770 million tons, suggesting a multibillion-dollar value from a market that significantly drives climate progress. This is important because part of the resistance to climate mitigation efforts stems from the assumption that progress may not prove beneficial to resource investment and return on investment. However, as China's model demonstrates, it is possible to strike a viable balance on both fronts if the market is designed to address the constraints, opportunities, and future promise of effective emission control systems.

As COP30 demonstrated, there is a divergence of views on how to combat climate challenges. This is evident in the mixed responses to rising greenhouse gas emissions, extreme weather events, and the implementation of tangible aid to help developing countries meet their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs). But as Wang Yi, vice chair of China's National Expert Committee on Climate Change, pointed out, "there is a need to assess how many of these [NDC] pledges fall short of global targets."

This is a message that should resonate with a world waiting for nations to put their climate improvement pledges into action. From the loss and damage fund to past pledges on customized climate support, the gap between rhetoric and reality must be bridged. This is particularly true for economies capable of steering scalable climate progress through domestic transformations, policy support and growing clout with international organizations.

Enter China's carbon market. It is part of a broader effort to limit greenhouse gas emissions from peak levels, and is accompanied by additional efforts to lift wind and installed solar capacity to significantly higher levels. These diverse interventions speak to a united, future-focused approach to climate progress, without relying on a single lever of progress to yield tangible outcomes. The resulting support for integrated progress is a lesson for countries at COP30, who are keen to generate value – both through domestic action and informed international cooperation.

"It's no longer time for negotiation. It's time for implementation, implementation and implementation," affirmed U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the Plenary of Leaders of the Belém Climate Summit ahead of COP30.

Ultimately, China's carbon market aligns with global best practices and is set to expand coverage to significant new sectors in the near future. Its development trajectory, characterized by robust cooperation on climate targets, appeal to the Global South and capacity-building, offers optimism for other economies seeking the benefits of next-generation emission control techniques. Since plans to advance a U.N.-backed international carbon trading market faced headwinds at the summit, looking to China may provide tangible solutions.

Hannan Hussain is co-founder and senior expert at Initiate Futures, an Islamabad-based policy think tank.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.