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ChinaScience

China’s carbon emissions trading scheme set to launch, with focus on accuracy of data

  • Scheme aims to reduce emissions through limits on carbon and a market in which companies can buy extra allowances
  • Premier Li Keqiang has said the scheme will be launched this month

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The trading scheme is seen as vital if China is to be carbon neutral by 2060. Photo: AFP
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China is this month set to launch its carbon emissions trading scheme, in a potential boost to global action on climate change, with experts saying accuracy of emissions data would be crucial to judging its success.

Delayed from its originally planned launch last month, the scheme aims to incentivise a reduction in emissions, hand in hand with legal limits on pollution, by enabling companies to buy extra allowances from other energy-efficient firms.

Some Chinese and foreign media had reported that trading would begin this Friday, but environment vice-minister Zhao Yingmin told Global Times at a press briefing on Wednesday that this was not the case.

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Zhao said that the scheme would be “an important step in global climate actions”. It is seen as a crucial tool for China to decarbonise its economy and reach its target, set last September, of carbon neutrality by 2060.

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China is the world’s largest emitter, accounting for about 30 per cent of the world’s annual greenhouse gases. The emissions trading scheme will put a price on emissions and allow companies to buy extra allowances if they need to pollute more.

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