# India's energy efficiency bureau proposes monthly carbon credit trading on the last Thursday, with a two-hour bidding window

_Published 2026-11-12 · Event 2026-10-19 · Markets and prices · India · https://asiacarbondesk.com/news/20261112-in-ccc-trading-procedure-draft/_

India's Bureau of Energy Efficiency published a draft procedure on 19 October 2026 for trading Carbon Credit Certificates on power exchanges.
Trading would take place once a month, on the last Thursday, with bids accepted from 12:00 to 14:00 and prices set by 16:00.
Comments were invited for 15 days, until 2 November 2026, after which the procedure goes to the regulator for approval.

## What happened

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the administrator of India's Carbon Credit Trading Scheme (CCTS), placed a Draft Detailed Procedure for Transaction of Carbon Credit Certificates under the Compliance Mechanism in the public domain with a notice dated 19 October 2026. The procedure is required by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) regulations on Carbon Credit Certificates (CCCs) notified on 27 February 2026, and was prepared with Grid Controller of India as registry. After the comment period, BEE is to submit the final text to CERC for approval.
The draft covers three parts: registration with the registry, the interfaces between power exchanges, registry, administrator and participants, and the dealing and transfer of certificates. Entities registered on the Indian Carbon Market portal would be registered with the registry automatically through a data link, without a separate application. Each certificate would carry a serial number built from the compliance year, entity registration number and issue date.
On a trading day the registry would freeze each entity's certificate holdings at 11:00. The bidding window would run from 12:00 to 14:00 on all designated exchanges at once. Exchanges would pass bids to the registry by 14:30, the registry would check sell bids against holdings by 15:00, and exchanges would publish the clearing price and volume by 16:00 through a closed double-sided uniform price auction. Registry accounts would be updated by 16:45. If the last Thursday is a holiday, trading moves to the next working day.
The draft also sets limits. Certificates bought on an exchange cannot be resold, voluntary buyers must retire what they buy, bilateral trades are not allowed even within a corporate group, and transfers follow first-in, first-out order.

## Background

The CCTS was notified on 28 June 2023 and amended on 19 December 2023. The Greenhouse Gases Emission Intensity Target Rules, 2025 (G.S.R. 739(E), 8 October 2025) set targets for obligated entities in four sectors (aluminium, cement, chlor-alkali, and pulp and paper), using 2023-24 as the baseline year, with compliance years 2025-26 and 2026-27. Entities that beat their target receive one certificate per tonne of CO2e; those that miss it must buy certificates or pay environmental compensation equal to twice the average certificate price of that year's trading cycle.
CERC's regulations already provide for trading on a monthly basis, or at another frequency set in a procedure the Commission approves, and bar entities with more than three bid defaults in a quarter from dealing for six months. The October draft repeats that sanction. No floor or forbearance price has yet been found in the official texts, and no certificate has been traded. When it answered Parliament on 13 March 2025, the Ministry of Power expected compliance trading to begin in 2026-27.

## How often carbon units trade in selected Asian compliance markets

| Market | Trading schedule | Source detail |
|---|---|---|
| India CCTS (draft, October 2026) | One session a month, last Thursday; bids 12:00 to 14:00 | Monthly under CERC rules, unless the Commission approves another frequency |
| Korea K-ETS (Korea Exchange) | Every trading day 10:00 to 12:00; auctions 14:00 to 15:00 | Since 24 Nov 2025 |
| China national ETS | Trading on exchange working days | 243 trading days in 2025 |
| Indonesia IDXCarbon | 07:00 to 19:00 exchange time | From 13 Jul 2026 |

Schedules are taken from each country's data book; times are local.

## What is next

- 2027-03-31: end of compliance year 2026-27, the last year with notified targets

## Sources

- [Invitation of Public Comments and Suggestions on the Draft Detailed Procedure for Transaction of Carbon Credit Certificates under the Compliance Mechanism (No. 45/02/NMEEE/Energy Efficiency/2025-CCTS, 19 October 2026)](https://beeindia.gov.in/WriteReadData/RTF1984/RTF-PDF-20510f1d3ee6d4ba_1792664827.pdf) (Bureau of Energy Efficiency, checked 2026-11-12)
- [Draft Detailed Procedure for Transaction of CCCs under Compliance Mechanism (October 2026)](https://beeindia.gov.in/WriteReadData/RTF1984/RTF-PDF-ff98b7dece646232_1792561430.pdf) (Bureau of Energy Efficiency, checked 2026-11-12)
- [CERC (Terms and Conditions for Purchase and Sale of Carbon Credit Certificates) Regulations, 2026](https://cercind.gov.in/regulations/205-Noti.pdf) (Central Electricity Regulatory Commission, checked 2026-11-12)
- [G.S.R. 739(E), Greenhouse Gases Emission Intensity Target Rules, 2025](https://beeindia.gov.in/WriteReadData/RTF1984/RTF-PDF-f0db112734284168_1776057153.pdf) (Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change / Bureau of Energy Efficiency, checked 2026-11-12)
- [Lok Sabha Unstarred Questions No. 2377 and 2401 (answered 13.03.2025)](https://www.powermin.gov.in/static/uploads/2025/08/dfa7cb0482b658dcf571cbdf023c3fed.pdf) (Ministry of Power, checked 2026-11-12)

Data book: https://asiacarbondesk.com/india-ccts/