China’s pilot cap-and-trade program

[***super_nova***]

Who was it here few months ago arguing that China will never do it? 

With both the world's largest population and highest levels of carbon pollution, China has the most to lose from a changing climate and the most to do to address it. Reassuringly, the Chinese leadership sees this threat and has initiated a pilot cap-and-trade program to curb carbon pollution in seven different regions and cities. The country aims to follow the limited program with a nationwide strategy by around 2016.

What's in store for 2014?

MORE TOP CLIMATE STORIES FROM 2013

[lakeland27 · Accepted solution]

thats real progress. why are the Chinese moving forward when we are stuck in reverse ? must be those gearsticks (or dipsticks) in government for now.

The Chinese city of Tianjin has launched the country's fifth emissions trading scheme as the world's biggest-emitting nation took another step towards reining in its impact on the environment.

The newest of China's carbon markets caps CO2 emissions from iron and steel producers, chemical facilities, power and heat generators, and oil and gas exploitation.

Five initial trades at 26 and 28 yuan ($4.83 and $5.20) for a total of 45,000 permits were announced on Thursday by the government at Thursday's opening ceremony.

Power companies Hanergy and Huaneng Carbon Assets Management, oil and gas firm PetroChina Co Ltd and trading house Citic Securities were among the buyers in the first transactions, according to the local government.

The opening trades put Tianjin's initial carbon price at the low-end of other Chinese markets.

The central government aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions per unit of GDP to 40-45 per cent below 2005 levels by the end of this decade, and has said it wants to use carbon trading as its key tool to achieve that market.

The Tianjin scheme, launched hot on the heels of similar markets in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Beijing and Guangdong province, will make 114 of the city's top emitters pay for each tonne of CO2 they emit beyond a cap they have been given by the government.

[spotweldersfriend]

Alarmists *giggle*

[lakeland27]

 tee hee.  imagine being pursued by pee wee herman .

[spotweldersfriend]

Or worse,the Chinese version-Pee Ree Herman

[lakeland27]

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@spotweldersfriend wrote:
Or worse,the Chinese version-Pee Ree Herman

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 tee hee bing lee herman ?

[donnashuggy]

thats real progress. why are the Chinese moving forward when we are stuck in reverse 

Because we are open for business, Greg Hunt is so clever, our largest coal mine is real progress didn't you know?

[lakeland27]

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@donnashuggy wrote:

thats real progress. why are the Chinese moving forward when we are stuck in reverse 

Because we are open for business, Greg Hunt is so clever, our largest coal mine is real progress didn't you know?

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 more reverse gears than a Fiat tank ,

[lakeland27]

10. More Weather on Steroids

In 2013, extreme weather events picked up right where they left off in 2012, and the resulting picture wasn’t pretty.

It wasn’t just Super Typhoon Haiyan leveling the city of Tacloban and other communities in the Philippines, leaving hundreds of thousands homeless and struggling to find food and water. It wasn’t just the 500-year floods inundating the cobbled streets and historic buildings of centuries-old towns in Germany, Austria, Hungary, and the Czech Republic. Or the biblical rains—and infernal floods—that rewrote the map and destroyed thousands of homes in Colorado’s Front Range. Or another year of record-breaking temperatures in Australia and bushfires devouring thousands of acres. Or the floods in India. Or the wildfires in the American West. It was that this list only begins to cover the many human and financial costs of carbon pollution we saw this year.

And with climate change continuing, these kinds of devastating events are only becoming more common, frequent, and extreme.

[lakeland27]

#9 Science Speaks Up

© 2013 IPCC

This September, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a group of more than 800 experts representing 85 nations, released the first part of its fifth assessment report (known in the field as AR5). Behind the abundant acronyms, the report summarized what the world’s leading climate scientists know about climate change, and the verdict was unequivocal: scientists are more certain than ever that greenhouse gases from human activity is the primary drive....

Ninety-five percent certain, to be exact. Or to put it another way, scientists are as certain that human activity is causing climate change as they are that cigarettes cause cancer.

AR5 also went a step beyond previous reports, giving us a budget for how much carbon pollution we can produce without global warming going over the 2 degree Celsius redline that experts agree is the limit for acceptable adaptation. The good news is that this number—one trillion tons—lets world leaders know just where the ceiling is if we want to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. The bad news is that we’ve already burned through more than half of our budget and are on track to exceed it by the middle of the century if emissions keep rising at their current rate.