China Tables 11 New CCER Methodologies in Largest Expansion Yet

China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment has proposed 11 new methodologies for its CCER voluntary carbon credit programme — the biggest single expansion since the market resumed trading in January 2024.

The drafts, published as two consultation notices on October 16, cover clean fuels, battery storage, waste recycling and transport electrification. The public comment window closes on October 23, giving stakeholders one week to respond before the ministry moves to finalise the rules.

None of the 11 methodologies is approved yet. Until the drafts clear consultation and verification requirements, they remain proposals, not live credit-generating pathways.

What's on the list?

The 11 drafts break down into four broad material and technology streams:

• Clean fuels: renewable ammonia, biomass-derived methanol, methanol produced with green hydrogen, and two types of biodiesel made from waste oils and fats.
• Storage: sodium-ion and vanadium-flow battery storage, plus pumped-storage hydropower.
• Waste and recycling: chemical recycling of low-value plastics, and biogas from food waste.
• Transport: electric mining haulage vehicles.

For the recycling sector, the plastics and food-waste drafts are the ones to watch. Chemical recycling of low-value plastics — material that mechanical routes can't economically process — would get a standardised basis for claiming creditable emissions reductions, potentially improving project economics for operators sitting on hard-to-move feedstock streams.

The biogas methodology does the same for food waste, a stream where China's cities generate enormous volumes and where capture projects have struggled to monetise avoided methane without a clear crediting route.

Both drafts, if finalised, standardise how projects are designed and how their emission reductions are calculated and verified, according to the ministry.

In short: two of the 11 drafts could directly change the revenue stack for waste-sector projects in China.

Why the CCER matters now

China's voluntary crediting system, the China Certified Emission Reduction scheme, runs alongside the national emissions trading market. It resumed trading in January 2024 after a long suspension, reopening a route for eligible projects to generate credits usable under domestic market rules.

The wider market keeps growing. Cumulative trading in China's national emissions allowance market passed 930 million tonnes by the end of July 2026, according to figures reported by Xinhua.

That scale matters for project developers. A CCER credit is only worth what the compliance market lets it do, and the national ETS is where demand ultimately sits. The 930-million-tonne figure signals a liquid enough base that new credit supply from waste and storage projects has somewhere to go.

What decides what happens next?

If adopted, the 11 methodologies would open additional pathways for developers to earn credits. The ministry frames them as a way to standardise project design, calculation and verification of emissions reductions across a much wider set of activities.

But the practical impact hinges on three things: the final rules, project eligibility criteria and verification requirements. Consultation drafts often change, and the gap between a published methodology and a bankable credit can be wide.

For recyclers and waste-to-energy operators, the milestone to track is the ministry's decision after the October 23 comment deadline — that's when the drafts either harden into rules or go back for revision.

The comment period closes October 23; what comes out the other side decides whether China's waste streams get a new carbon revenue line.