Thomson Reuters Point Carbon is reporting this morning that China is going to launch carbon-trading schemes in six regions before 2013. If all goes well, that will then lead to a nationwide carbon trading platform by 2015. According to the report (which is sitting behind a pay-wall or I would link to it), the areas chosen are Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai and Tianjin and the provinces of Hubei and Guangdong.
The government in China has vowed to reduce carbon intensity (that is the amount of carbon produced per unit of GDP) by 45% by the end of 2020 compared to 2005 levels. As part of that vow, the government has targeted 2011-15 with a 17% carbon intensity cut. For the Chinese, though, these are targets with teeth. You might recall that loads of companies had to shut down operations when local governments turned off the power to meet the 2006-10 energy and carbon targets. This was later deemed a mistake, but it gives you an idea of how seriously the targets are being taken.
Sun Cuihua, the vice-director of the climate change department at the National Development and Reform Commission, was quoted by Point Carbon as saying that the trading would be based on provincial-level consumption targets, with a national cap of 4 billion metric tons of standard coal by 2015.
David Stanway of Reuters observed, “Guangdong has already submitted plans to cap the energy use of cities in its heavily populated Pearl River Delta region and allow them to trade consumption permits with one another.” His report also pointed out that the government will “rely more on ‘market mechanisms’ like carbon trading to meet its climate and pollution goals in the coming five years.”
I hope the Communists don’t find out about that.
