China to pilot carbon emission exchange -Xinhua

BEIJING: China will pilot a carbon trading scheme and gradually build a market for emissions trading to meet pollution goals and fight climate change, the official Xinhua news agency said on Sunday.

To get the scheme going, Beijing will widen the difference in electricity tariffs between power-intensive sectors and other industries, Xie Zhenhua, vice-minister of China's economic planner the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), was quoted as saying.

Xinhua did not say when such a scheme will be launched.

Beijing would also improve laws, regulation and taxation policies to encourage energy conservation, and ask financial groups to fund low-carbon emission projects, Xinhua said.

Development of industries such as services, renewable energy and information technology would be welcomed by Beijing, while excessive growth in power-intensive sectors would be discouraged, it added.

Companies and governments around the world are turning to emissions trading as a way to combat climate change and join a world carbon market worth $142 billion last year.

An official from the NDRC had said in April that China would pilot six emissions trading schemes by 2013, and set up a national trading platform by 2015.

Last month, the NDRC reiterated a ban on favourable power tariffs for energy-intensive sectors as the world's second-largest electricity consumer struggles to deal with its worst power crisis in seven years.

Copyright Reuters, 2011