China aims to link its domestic carbon market with others around the world as it seeks to cut emissions, a government official said.
The country can set a cap on emissions in some regions without curbing economic development, Shu Wang, deputy director of the Climate Change Department at the National Development and Reform Commission, said today at the CarbonExpo conference in Cologne, Germany.
The NDRC, China’s policy making body, has asked officials in two provinces and five cities with some of the country’s greatest emissions to set up cap and trade programs by next year as a possible start for a national system in 2015. The pilot programs are part of China’s plan to reduce so-called carbon intensity, or emissions per economic unit, by as much as 20 percent by 2015, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Emissions limits, which industries would be bound by, and the participation of bankers are still being worked out, New Energy said May 18.
“Banks, brokers and funds are very helpful for carbon markets,” Wang said.
Regional cap and trade systems are scheduled to start in Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Guangdong, Hubei and Chongqing. The Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro may set up its carbon-trading system in January, a government official said yesterday in Cologne. Australia is scheduled to launch its carbon price in July before moving to cap and trade in 2015. The European Union has operated the world’s biggest emission-trading market since 2005.
