Carbon rights exchange starts in Guangzhou

Updated: 2012-09-11 21:14

By Li Wenfang (chinadaily.com.cn)

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The Guangzhou carbon emission rights trading exchange was launched in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, on Tuesday.

Carbon trading is an important way to promote ecology and lower the cost of emissions with the market mechanism, said Xie Zhenhua, vice minister of the National Development and Reform Commission, at the launching ceremony.

Xie urged the strengthening of market supervision, maintaining market stability and setting rules governing carbon trading, since the building of a carbon market requires long-term sustained efforts, according to a statement by the provincial government.

The provincial government has issued a program of implementing the experiment on carbon emission rights trading. Guangdong is one of seven provinces and municipalities that has such an experiment.

The efforts are important in promoting green development and industrial transformation in Guangdong, said Xu Shaohua, executive vice governor of Guangdong.

In the first phase of the program, dated between 2012 and 2015, the experiment will focus on a mechanism of such carbon trading in some key industries, reported Nanfang Daily.

Enterprises included in the carbon emission control and quota trading are those that discharged 20,000 tons of carbon dioxide or more a year in any of the years from 2011 to 2014, in nine industries including power generation, cement, steel, ceramics, petrochemical and textiles.

Based on the statistics in 2010, such enterprises totaled 827, which accounted for 42 percent of the energy consumption in Guangdong.

More industries will be included in the carbon-emission control and quota trading in the future.