Asia's Carbon Markets Strategic Imperatives for Corporations 2025

Green service champions The growing complexity of carbon markets has fuelled demand for diverse, specialized services, including: –Consulting services such as carbon accounting, decarbonization strategies and implementation support. –Operation and maintenance services, such as managing battery energy storage stations. –Financial services, including carbon trading and project financing. Such offerings may be delivered by independent specialized firms or as extensions of traditional companies’ offerings, as demonstrated by the carbon-related services of the State Grid Corporation of China (see Case Study 6). These comprehensive solutions fill capability gaps for organizations navigating the intricate carbon market landscape, enabling them to meet strategic goals and capitalize on market opportunities with confidence. Digital tools As discussed earlier in this report, data and technology are pivotal to unlock the potential of carbon markets. Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) have significantly expanded possibilities for expediting the implementation of solutions across diverse scenarios. By integrating innovations including blockchain, privacy computing, AIoT, infrared and satellite technologies, digital technologies could tackle specific challenges, such as MRV efficiency and data integrity. These solutions deliver value by reducing costs, enhancing efficiencies, building trust, unlocking the value of data assets, enabling smart trading and improving access to financing. Actionable steps for corporations include: –Piloting biodiversity monitoring projects with sensor technology. –Building partnerships with robotics providers. –Investing in internal capacity building. In the case study of Ant Group, blockchain and privacy computing help the company address bottlenecks of data authenticity and security, while empowering MRV systems, green certifications and green financing (see Case Study 7).Accurate emissions data is essential for transparency, credibility and effective decarbonization. Yet regional energy variability, complex power systems and limited real-time data access hinder carbon factor standardization and end-user participation. The State Grid Corporation of China (SGCC) tackles these via digital carbon accounting, leveraging its energy infrastructure and data capabilities. In Shandong Province, SGCC has been developing a dynamic electricity-carbon factor system that combines real- time emissions from upstream power plants with advanced metering and algorithms. In 2024, a major steel producer piloted the system and corrected a 5.7% overestimation in its reported emissions. SGCC is targeting an official release of the system, which will enable minute-level, region-specific data for key stakeholders. Since 2021, SGCC has piloted the “carbon efficiency code” in Zhejiang Province through its new energy cloud platform. This tool integrates data across sectors to calculate and grade enterprise emissions into five efficiency levels, mitigating challenges of fragmented energy data and unclear baselines. Now covering over 40,000 industrial enterprises in Zhejiang Province, it has facilitated a cumulative reduction of 64,000 tCO2e.CASE STUDY 6 State Grid Corporation of China – carbon accounting as an enabler Source: expert interview with SGCC. Asia’s Carbon Markets: Strategic Imperatives for Corporations 38