Carbon trading will reduce greenhouse gas emissions: envoy

China, the largest emitter of carbon dioxide in the world, has been promoting the building of a market system for the carbon emissions trade, China’s special representative said.

China pays great attention to using the market mechanism to confront climate change, Xie Zhenhua, China’s Special Representative on Climate Change, said on Monday at a side event of the Conference of the Parties (COP24) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Katowice, Poland.

Since 2011, China has been conducting trials on local carbon trading in seven provinces and cities. By October, the traded emissions quota exceeded 264 million tons in the trial regions, with transactions worth over 6 billion yuan ($860 million), Xie said.

The sections and companies in the trial areas have realized a dual reduction in the amount and intensity of carbon emissions, which shows the great effects of using the carbon market to control the emissions of greenhouse gas and gain experience for the future construction of a national carbon emissions trade, he noted.

China is also learning from the practices and experience of the overseas carbon market, Xie said.

As a market mechanism, the carbon emissions trade could effectively lower the cost on emissions reduction to achieve the goal of controlling greenhouse gas emissions. The carbon market is playing a more significant role in promoting the global governance of climate.

The carbon emissions trading system in China includes power generation, the iron and steel production and cement manufacturing sectors in seven provinces and municipalities. Under the scheme, enterprises are assigned emissions quotas, and those producing more than their share of emissions are allowed to buy unused quotas in the market from those that cause less pollution.