Tue Feb 9, 2010 2:27pm GMT
Market News
By Emma Graham-Harrison
BEIJING, Feb 9 (Reuters) - The northern Chinese port city of Tianjin launched a small-scale energy intensity trading scheme on Tuesday with three pilot sales, taking a possible first step towards a nationwide carbon cap and trade scheme.
International heavyweights Citigroup Global Markets and Gazprom Marketing and Trading were the buyers of a first set of "Carbon Emission Allowances", for energy savings equivalent to around 4,500 tonnes of coal, from three suppliers of heating.
After validation and verification, the more than 500,000 yuan ($73,250) deal could result in the trade of up to 11,500 CEAs, the companies involved said in a statement.
"The traded unit is carbon emission credits, but it comes from the energy intensity target," clean energy firm Arreon, which has helped define the scheme's structure, told Reuters in a written answer to questions about how it works.
"Participating entities out-performance of the energy intensity cap is 'energy saving', which can be converted to carbon reduction by applying a factor equivalent to the carbon intensity of the energy source."
