China to launch emissions trading system by 2017: official
Over half of global energy conservation in the past two decades has taken place in China, said the nation's chief climate negotiator on Thursday, vowing to further optimize energy utilization to achieve China's climate change mitigation goals.
China has contributed over 52 percent of worldwide energy conservation in recent years, said Xie Zhenhua, China's special representative on climate change, at a news conference in Beijing, where he released a report on the country's efforts to cope with climate change.
In order to fulfill China's promises in its own Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC) to climate change mitigation, the country needs to further increase energy utilization, Xie said.
Bai Yunwen, policy director of Beijing-based nongovernmental organization Greenovation Hub, told the Global Times that China has taken several measures to reduce air pollution and carbon emissions, citing the passage of an amendment to the Air Pollution Control Law, the promotion of green finance as examples.
China will also start a nationwide carbon emissions trading market in 2017 pending the smooth operation of seven pilot schemes across the country, Xie said at the conference.
Transactions in the seven pilot programs totalled about 1.2 billion yuan ($188.9 million) and involved gas emissions of 40.24 million tons, according to a report released Thursday by China's top economic planner.
Xie reiterated the goals of China's INDC: to cut carbon emissions per unit of GDP by 60-65 percent from 2005 levels by 2030, aiming to both increase the proportion of non-fossil fuel sources in primary energy consumption to about 20 percent and reach peak carbon emissions by the same date.
He also pointed out that developed nations still have much to do to meet their pledges to provide money and transfers of low-carbon and environmentally friendly technology to developing countries.
"The greatest difference between developing and developed countries is the sources and amount of funds," Wang Tao, a scholar with the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, told the Global Times, explaining that the Paris conference will likely see arguments between the two factions over whether the money is from public or private funds.
Bai added that the sources and parameters of the South-South Cooperation Fund proposed by China to help developing countries address climate change will also be further discussed at the conference.
The Standardization Administration on Thursday also issued its first State-level standards for the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions from 10 industries, including the power generation, steel, chemical engineering and cement industries.
