CHINA expects to make a “breakthrough” on the establishment of a nationwide carbon emissions trading scheme (ETS) by the end of this year, the country’s senior climate change officials said Tuesday. Establishing a nationwide ETS was one of the pledges made by China ahead of the Paris climate change agreement of 2015, but implementation has been delayed. “We will strive to make a breakthrough in progress before the year-end,” said Li Gao, head of the climate office at the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, speaking on the sidelines of a conference in Beijing. The scheme was originally designed to include all major industrial sectors but its first phase will be limited to the coal-fired power industry, which is responsible for around 3 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions each year. China’s total annual carbon emissions stand at around 12.3 billion tons, according to the last full inventory covering the year 2014. The government has already ordered firms from eight industrial sectors — oil, chemicals, construction materials, steel, nonferrous metals, papermaking, electric power and shipping — to submit their carbon emission data before the end of March, in preparation for the ETS launch. Li Ganjie, minister of ecology and environment, told a national meeting Monday that the situation facing China’s environment remained “grim” amid “profound and complex changes” affecting the global economy. (SD-Agencies) |