Press release: 24 April 2012

A domestic cap-and-trade system could more effectively curb emissions than command-and-control, a new report from SEI and FORES shows, but the process is still in its infancy, and international expertise is sorely needed. A new seven-site pilot test may determine the future of carbon trading in China.
China observers have rightfully called attention to the country’s new interest in market-based approaches to reducing the energy- and carbon-intensity of its economy. It is a major policy shift, and given that China is the world’s top carbon emitter, it has potentially huge implications for global efforts to slow climate change.

But can carbon trading succeed without a mature free-market economy? That is a key question raised in the report, China’s Carbon Emission Trading: An Overview of Current Development, by SEI’s Guoyi Han, Marie Olsson and Karl Hallding, and David Lunsford, founder of the Hong Kong-based consultancy Energy Environment Solutions....