China’s Annual Central Economic Work Conference was held in Beijing from December 16th-18th. The conference set out key tasks for the next year. Preparing the work for the planned carbon peak but also carbon neutrality are among these tasks. The conference pointed out that China is striving to reach a carbon dioxide emissions peak before 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. The urgent development of an action plan to reach these two goals has been underlined. Furthermore, it was stressed, that the adjustment and optimization of industrial structure, energy structure, promotion of the early peak of coal consumption, the vigorous development of new energy, construction of the national energy rights, carbon emissions trading market, and improvement of the dual control of energy consumption should be accelerated.
Sino-German Project on Capacity Building for the Establishment of ETS in China
The Chinese government has set itself the goal of reaching the peak of CO2 emissions by around 2030 and reducing CO2 emissions per unit of GDP by 60 to 65% compared to 2005 levels. To achieve these targets, China is gradually establishing a national Emission Trading System (ETS) as one of the key building blocks of its mitigation strategy. Since the start of the project in 2012, the Sino-German project “Capacity Building for the Establishment of Emissions Trading Schemes (ETS) in China” has been supporting the Chinese government in this endeavour through knowledge transfer and strengthening of the political leverage of key institutions and stakeholders required to develop and operate an ETS. Initially, the project supported the development of the regional pilots ETS. Since 2016, the focus lies on support for the roll out of the national ETS. The project is jointly implemented by GIZ and the Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) of the People’s Republic of China. It is executed on behalf of the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) within the framework of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) that is financing climate and biodiversity projects in developing and newly industrialising countries, as well as in countries in transition.
