A parcel of 30 tonnes of CO₂-equivalent carbon credits cleared at 3,000 yuan on June 25 on the Yangtze Ecological Environment Rights Trading Platform, marking Dawu County’s first-ever online trade of an ecological carbon product. The credits arose from the rehabilitation of the Menkanlingmine site in FangfanTown, Dawu County, Xiaogan City, Hubei Province.
The 0.618-square-kilometre restoration zone — formerly bare mine waste — now supports roughly 128,300 square metres of planted grass cover and around 16,500 trees including cypress, poplar, and photinia. Carbon accounting followed Hubei Province’s integrated mountain-river-forest-farmland-lake-grassland-desert protection and restoration carbon sink methodology, which after field surveys, sample-plot monitoring, and engineering document review produced a certified first-period total of 30.04 tonnes CO₂-equivalent. The 30-tonne lot was listed by Hubei Wuxin Investment Co.and transferred by bilateral agreement to the People’s Government of XuanhuadianTown, within the same county, at an implied price of 100 yuan per tonne.
County officials have characterised the transaction as proof of concept for a “value regeneration” model — converting mine rehabilitation obligations into tradeable assets while also eliminating geological hazards and adding cultivable farmland. Dawu has accumulated over 1.23 million kilowatts of installed renewable-energy capacity generating roughly 2 billion kilowatt-hours annually, and one of its villages achieved recognition as Hubei Province’s first “zero-carbon village,” earning a showcase slot at COP28.
Carbon Market Context
- China’s positions presented at the UN Climate Action Summit — which outlined domestic carbon market development as a pillar of national climate strategy — provide the policy architecture within which sub-national voluntary credit innovations like Dawu’s mine-restoration transaction are now taking shape.
- High-level EU–China climate dialogue documented at the same summit, including exchanges between China’s Special Representative on Climate Change Xie Zhenhua and EU counterparts, underscored shared recognition of ecological restoration as a verifiable carbon sink category; Hubei Province’s provincial methodology operationalises that principle at the county level.
Source
- 矿山变 “碳金库”！湖北大悟完成县域首笔矿区修复碳汇线上交易碳交易网, published 2026-06-30