New | China considers launching tradable pollution permits in campaign to clean air
China will look into establishing a nationwide trading system for pollution permits as part of efforts to use market mechanisms to help clean up its environment, the country’s top environment official said.
China has vowed to reverse the environmental consequences of three decades of breakneck industrial expansion and clean up its heavily polluted air, water and soil and is hoping to use the market to encourage firms to cut emissions.
Provinces pledged this week to meet targets set by the ministry to cut air pollution by 5 to 25 per cent.
Emission trading in China is not strictly a market activity and it is more like paying for emitting. It is just a few regions running some test trading
The ministry said it was considering a system to evaluate progress. Authorities regularly issue directives to try to tackle air pollution in major cities, but the effect has been limited with enforcement still lax and economic growth seen as the priority.
China already has more than 20 local trading platforms that allow industrial firms to buy and sell permits for pollutants like sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, major constituents of smog and acid rain.