Objective Against the background of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals, blue carbon trading serves as a vital policy tool for promoting greenhouse gas emission reduction through market mechanisms, and delivers dual values of facilitating the realization of dual-carbon goals and providing effective economic incentives. In-depth analyses are performed on the development status and market operation mechanisms of blue carbon trading in China, so as to provide theoretical support and references for optimizing blue carbon trading modes and improving the construction of the blue carbon market system.

Method A systematic review was conducted on the development status of China's blue carbon trading, including the policy system, accounting system, trading prices and trading platforms. Practical experiences and financial innovation outcomes of blue carbon trading in China's pioneering coastal areas were summarized. Combined with case study and quantitative analysis methods, mainstream operation modes of blue carbon trading in existing cases were sorted out. The market supply and demand mechanism and price formation logic were analyzed, and the future development potential of China's blue carbon market was quantitatively evaluated.

Result It is found that China's blue carbon trading is generally in the stage of market cultivation at present, and a large-scale and normalized trading pattern has not yet been formed, requiring long-term exploration for mature market-oriented operation. At this stage, prominent problems remain in the blue carbon market, including inadequate disclosure of trading information, sharp fluctuations in trading prices, and insufficient participation enthusiasm of market supply and demand entities.

Conclusion To address these issues, collaborative optimization and upgrading from the three dimensions of policy, market and technology is required. The improvement of China's blue carbon trading market system can be realized by promoting the unification and alignment of blue carbon accounting standards, constructing a regional linkage mechanism for blue carbon trading, perfecting the price stabilization mechanism of blue carbon trading, stimulating the vitality of market supply and demand entities, building a national blue carbon digital information platform, and empowering trading upgrading with blockchain technology.