number of projects in the world.^14 The EU is the largest investment source of CDM
projects; registered projects in the UK, The Netherlands, Sweden, Germany, Spain,
France and Austria account respectively for 31.5, 9.37, 6.98, 4.43, 3.15, 3.11 and
1.75 % of the total projects in the world.^15
Fifteen EU countries before expansion in 2004 are major investors in China’s
CDM projects. As of July 15, 2010, except for a few projects based on cooperation
with Japan, Canada and others, more than 80 % of China’s CDM projects result
from cooperation with EU member states. Fifteen EU countries are the largest
buyers of China’s Certified Emission Reduction (CER). The two sides signed an
agreement on July 18, 2007, under which 873.6 million tCO 2 e was bought before
2012, equivalent to 77 % of the total Certified Emission Reduction generated in
China.^16 According to statistics from one NGO headquartered in the UK, in 2009,
53 % of CER bought by European companies came from China. Incomplete
statistics concerning registered CDM projects in China show that 15 EU countries
invested in 1795 CDM projects in China during the years 2009–2012, including 38
super-large projects with an estimated annual emission reduction >100,000 tCO 2 e,
whose estimated annual emission reduction reached 89502558 tCO 2 e.^17
One issue to which special attention should be paid is that excess supply occurs
on the current global carbon credit market. Globally, this is attributable to the
following two aspects: on the one hand, with the impact from thefinancial crisis
and the European debt crisis, economic growth is sluggish and carbon emission
decelerates in developed countries; on the other hand, global climate agreement
negotiations are slow, and many developed countries have not yet specified clear
emission reduction goals. The EU is still faced with the aftermath of the debt crisis
and has failed to increase its emission reduction target to 30 %, affecting its carbon
credit demand. According to reports, many European enterprises have refused to
buy carbon credits from China’s CDM projects according to the agreed prices.^18 In
addition, the EU decided to take the CDM as the tool for helping the least devel-
oped countries vulnerable to climate change to address climate change as from the
second commitment period of theKyoto Protocol; thus the EU will no longer buy
carbon credits from CDM projects in China, India, etc. Carbon credits arising out of
China will need to be more addressed to projects within China in the future.
(^14) http://cdm.unfccc.int/Statistics/Registration/NumOfRegisteredProjByHostPartiesPieChart.html.
(^15) http://cdm.unfccc.int/Statistics/Registration/RegisteredProjAnnex1PartiesPieChart.html.
(^16) “China-Europe Energy and Climate Safety Interdependence”Research Group:China-Europe
Energy and Climate Safety Interdependence, World Economics and Politics, 2008, Issue 8.
(^17) Data from China CDM Online,http://cdm.ccchina.gov.cn/.
(^18) http://europe.chinadaily.com.cn/business/2012-02/09/content_14566960.htm, accessed on
November 23, 2012.
9 China-EU Relations in the Context of Global Climate Governance 173