Trading has started in South Korea's new emissions trading scheme, which will impose caps on emissions from 525 of the country's biggest companies and becomes the world's second-biggest carbon market.
The new market is a key component in the government's plan to meet a target of limiting climate-changing greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 to 30 per cent below current levels.
Under the scheme, Korea's power generators, petrochemical firms, steel producers, carmakers, electro-mechanical firms and airlines have been given a fixed amount of permits to cover their emissions for the next three years.
The government has set the total amount of allowed emissions for this year to 2017 at 1.687 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Any company emitting more than they have permits to cover must buy allowances from others in the market.
In Monday's trading, the first batch of permits went through at 7,860 won each before the price climbed to 8,640 won, similar to price levels in the European market, the world's biggest.
A late trade was registered by the Korea Exchange just after the market closed, meaning that five deals for a total of 1,190 permits went through on the first day.