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Climate change
China

China aims to launch national carbon trading scheme in next five years

  • Environment ministry says it will start with the power sector and expand to other industries
  • It is expected to be the world’s biggest, but there are concerns over transparency and accuracy of emissions data

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China is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases. Photo: AP
Echo Xie

China aims to launch a nationwide emissions trading scheme in the next five years, starting with the power sector and expanding to other industries, the environment ministry said on Wednesday.

“The 14th five-year plan (2021-25) will be a landmark period for the establishment of the carbon trading scheme,” said Li Gao, head of the ministry’s climate change department.

“We will transition from the pilot carbon trading schemes to a national programme, and expand from one sector to cover other industries,” he said.

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The ministry would speed up the process of reviewing the regulations, system building and data checking to prepare for the launch of the national system, Li said.

The carbon trading platform aims to encourage polluters to reduce emissions through a market mechanism. Observers said there was new impetus to set up the national scheme after President Xi Jinping’s pledge at the UN General Assembly last month that China would be carbon neutral – or reach net-zero emissions – by 2060 and that it aimed to hit peak carbon emissions before 2030.

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Yang Fuqiang, a senior adviser on energy and climate change policy for environmental group the Natural Resources Defence Council in Beijing, said the pilot schemes were “progressing well”.

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