Carbon sink trade debuts in Guizhou

Bijie city in Southwest China's Guizhou province recently issued the province's first "carbon ticket" for the carbon sink trade.

The city's forest coverage rate used to be less than 15 percent, but through efforts in afforestation, it now exceeds 60 percent. Bijie has become a key part of the ecological shelter zone in the upper streams of the Yangtze and Pearl Rivers.

With support from the Guizhou Forestry Department, Bijie has calculated the carbon reserves and carbon sinks of its forests, grasslands and wetlands and launched trail regulations for issuing carbon tickets.

The tickets are certificates of right to earnings from carbon emissions reductions, and they can be traded, pledged and cashed.

The tickets are expected to encourage afforestation, improve forest quality, and increase people's incomes. Owners of forest rights can apply for the tickets while continuing with their regular business operations, which means that the owners can benefit both from forest products and carbon sink markets.

When the tickets are used to offset corresponding carbon emissions, they must be canceled and pulled out of market circulation.

Bijie is currently encouraging finance institutes to participate in green finance products such as the pledging of forest carbon sink assets and in the storage, circulation and financing of carbon tickets.

In the future, Bijie will publicize the market value and financial features of carbon tickets to encourage more people to apply for and purchase the tickets.

Bijie will also improve carbon sink trading to turn forest resources and ecological advantages into economic benefits.