Abstract: On December 19,2017,the national carbon emissions trading system(ETS) was officially launched,which will firstly include only the power generation industry. With 10 000 tons of coal equivalent consumption as the entry threshold,China's national carbon market is bound to cover almost all the major thermoelectric enterprises. Although the national ETS would not have a significant impact in the short term,in the long run,it should push forward the low-carbon development by forcing the power generation industry to optimize its structure. This paper reviews the policy making progress and construction process of carbon market in China,analyzes the market performance of each pilot carbon market,summarizes the emission quota and CCER transactions,analyzes the effect of each pilot's ETS policy,and reviews and outlooks the development of the national ETS. By the end of December 2017,China's seven pilot carbon markets have accomplished more than 135 million tons of emission quota trading which accounts for more than 2 billion Chinese Yuan. This accumulated certain amount of experience for the establishment of the national ETS. In 2017,the transaction activity in the seven pilot carbon markets has increased. Nevertheless,there was still a large number of transactions concentrated around the compliance period. Chongqing's pilot carbon market performed much more active than before,which accomplished a rapidly increased trading volume and transaction activity. However,due to a long time without trading,Tianjin's pilot carbon market performed even worse in 2017. Hubei surpassed Guangdong to become the pilot carbon market with the largest trading volume and the lowest concentration of transactions. In 2018,the national ETS will be under construction,and during this period,these seven pilot carbon markets will continue to run simultaneously. There will be yearlong simulated transaction before the actual emission quota trading. The mechanism design of the carbon market is a process that needs continuous improvement,which will take at least two or three years for the carbon market to play its role in reducing the cost of carbon emission reduction as well as reducing the carbon emissions in China.