Making Green Power Credible: Sino-German Cooperation on Green Electricity Certificates
How certificate systems promote low-carbon development
As global demand for renewable electricity accelerates, reliable certificate systems are essential to ensure that green power claims translate into real emissions reductions. The Sino-German exchange on green power and renewable energy certificates highlighted how robust governance frameworks can support transparent markets and corporate decarbonisation.
The Challenge: Credibility of Rapidly Expanding Renewable Electricity
Renewable electricity deployment is growing fast, driven by climate targets, corporate net-zero commitments and electrification. Without reliable tracking and verification, however, green power claims risk losing trust. Certificate systems therefore play a key role in safeguarding environmental integrity, supporting fair competition and enabling market-based decarbonisation—while keeping transaction costs manageable.
Why Sino-German Cooperation Matters?
Renewable electricity markets increasingly operate across borders through global supply chains and multinational companies. Germany contributes experience with the EU’s Guarantees of Origin system, including cross-border trading and regulatory oversight. China brings scale, rapid implementation and innovative approaches that link certificates with physical power delivery. Joint exchange helps both sides improve market design, investment certainty and policy alignment.
Action Taken
On 9 December 2025, we convened policymakers and experts from both countries and organised a workshop on renewable energy certificates in Germany and China. The exchange aimed to compare certificate system design in China and Germany, identify lessons for improving transparency and integrity, and explore options for future cooperation.
Results and Insights
Discussions pointed to tangible progress as well as remaining challenges:
- China: Reforms to the Green Electricity Certificate (GEC) system since 2023 have expanded issuance coverage and strengthened trading, verification and cancellation rules. Market activity has increased, and recognition by initiatives such as RE100 enables companies in China to credibly demonstrate renewable electricity use.
- Germany: The EU Guarantees of Origin system offers a mature framework for tracking renewable electricity, including cross-border trade. Experience highlights both strengths and challenges, such as price volatility and interactions with support schemes.
Participants also addressed future-oriented issues, including data transparency, temporal and spatial granularity, and alignment with greenhouse gas accounting standards.
From Results to Systemic Impact
The exchange underlined that certificate systems can evolve from compliance instruments into structural elements of renewable energy governance. When combined with physical power delivery, corporate procurement and industrial applications, they can steer investment and support market-based decarbonisation..
Looking into the Future
Participants agreed to continue Sino-German cooperation through policy dialogue, joint research and exchanges on new developments. Future work will focus on the use of spatially and temporally differentiated GOs/GECs to further align certificate systems with broader climate and energy policies.
This dialogue is co-organised by GIZ, dena and EPPEI under the framework of the Sino-German Energy Transition project “EnTrans”, a component focusing on think tank cooperation of the Sino-German Energy Partnership supported by the German Federal Ministry for Energy and Economic Affairs (BMWE).