Huw Slater (54min)

ClientEarth

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Abstract

International carbon trading once again has the potential to act as a catalyst for clean energy transformation in the Global South. Two decades ago, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) played a quiet but decisive role in driving down the cost of solar PV. By creating early demand, lowering project risk, and attracting international capital, the CDM helped solar scale in emerging markets at a time when the technology was still expensive and unproven. Those early projects contributed to the manufacturing expansion and learning curve effects that ultimately made solar one of the cheapest energy sources in the world.

Today, China’s Certified Emission Reduction (CCER) programme is emerging just as many 'Belt and Road' countries face rising energy demand, volatile fuel prices, and tightening fiscal space. If China internationalises the CCER—allowing cross border crediting, investment, and project development—it could replicate some of the CDM’s most powerful features: predictable carbon revenue, standardised methodologies, and a pipeline of bankable clean energy projects. Given China’s dominant position in solar, wind, batteries, and grid technologies, an internationally linked CCER system could mobilise capital at scale and accelerate the diffusion of low cost clean energy across Asia, Africa, and beyond.

While the world has moved on from the CDM era, the underlying lesson remains: when carbon markets create early demand and reduce risk, clean technologies scale faster and become cheaper for everyone. A globally connected CCER system could become the next major driver of that dynamic—helping Belt and Road countries leapfrog to affordable, secure, low carbon energy systems in the years ahead.

Brief Bio

Based in China since 2011, Huw is a Climate and Energy Specialist at ClientEarth. His areas of expertise include carbon markets, low-carbon development and China’s energy transition. He has published a range of widely read papers and reports dealing with carbon market design and implementation. He recently served as a member of the Continuous Improvement Work Programme on Transition Credits for the Integrity Council for the Voluntary Carbon Market, focussed on establishing standards for high integrity carbon credits. He has previously worked on EU-funded projects supporting bilateral engagement and cooperation with China on emissions trading, and on environment and green economy. He was also responsible for establishing the grant facility under the UK Prosperity Fund China Energy and Low Carbon Economy Programme. Huw served as Chair of the European Chamber of Commerce in China’s Carbon Market Working Group in 2021-22, and is the lead author of the annual China Carbon Pricing Survey reports, the most in-depth and extensive summaries of stakeholder views on China's carbon market development.