China’s top climate official said on Tuesday that preparations for a nationwide emissions trading scheme were “basically complete” but he stopped short of giving a date for its launch and warned of the dangers of “excessive investment”.
Beijing announced two years ago that 2017 would be the year in which it rolled out a national carbon trading scheme that experts believe will become the largest of its type, eclipsing that of the EU.
But Xie Zhenhua, Beijing’s lead negotiator at the United Nations climate change conference in Bonn, pointed to several pitfalls associated with China’s plans even as he hailed its progress. The scheme is intended to reduce carbon emissions by creating a market cost for carbon emitters.