China aims to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions through trading scheme

Heavily polluting power plants across China will now have to choose between paying for their emissions or cleaning up their act

The world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, China, has launched the world’s biggest ever mechanism to reduce carbon, in the form of an emissions trading system.

China’s top governmental bodies on Tuesday gave their approval to plans for a carbon trading system that will initially cover the country’s heavily polluting power generation plants, then expand to take in most of the economy.