China may launch a carbon trading market as soon as 2014, according to a Bloomberg report.
According to the report, the government may ask companies to reduce carbon emissions per yuan of profit earned, rather than providing them with hard targets. To reach these goals, companies will be allowed to trade carbon credits in a market overseen by the government. The market will initially be limited to Chinese companies.
It was also recently reported that China could launch a carbon tax as early as 2012.
Meanwhile, carbon cutting initiatives in several more developed economies have stalled. President Obama’s climate bill is held up in the Senate, while Australia has halted progress on its climate goals in order to wait for action from other countries. The European Union also said this week it would only increase its carbon cutting targets if other nations moved first.
