Oooops...Mr Abbott!

China to launch energy cap-and-trade trials in green push

 (Reuters) - China is planning trial efforts for an energy cap-and-trade scheme, applying market forces to its goals to reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas pollution, the government said on Saturday.


The announcement added to evidence that China will focus on using broad energy consumption levers to pursue its goal of cutting carbon intensity, a measure of how much carbon dioxide -- the main greenhouse gas from fossil fuels -- is emitted to produce each unit of economic growth.


"We will put in place a statistics and accounting system for greenhouse gas emissions," the NDRC also said of its tasks for 2011.


China is the world's biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases from human activity, and the embryonic cap-and-trade system will be part of the nation's efforts to cut carbon intensity by 40-45 percent by 2020 compared to 2005 levels.


Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told the parliament that the country would cut energy intensity by 16 percent and carbon intensity by 17 percent by the end of 2015.