China's national carbon market, the world's largest emissions trading system, started online trading at the Shanghai Environment and Energy Exchange last Friday, a significant step to help the country reduce its carbon footprint and meet emission targets.

　　"This is the first phase of the national carbon market. Over 2,000 power companies emitting more than four billion tons per year have been involved, making the Chinese carbon market rank the world's largest in terms of the volume of greenhouse gas emissions," said Zhao Yingmin, Vice Minister of Ecology and Environment of China.

　　As to the reason for choosing the power industry to enter the national carbon market first, Zhao explained that the coal-burning power industry emits a large amount of carbon dioxide. Based on the experience of other countries, the power industry has always prioritized involvement in the carbon market, which not only makes full use of the carbon market mechanism to control greenhouse gas emissions, but also reduces coal burning and carbon emissions synergistically.

　　The carbon market is a policy instrument which aims to achieve specific targets of emission reduction with a relatively low cost. "The establishment of the national carbon market is an important innovation of a system to promote green and low-carbon development. It is also a crucial policy instrument to realize China's goal of peaking carbon emissions by 2030, achieving carbon neutrality by 2060 and the Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs) submitted to the United Nations in 2015," stressed Zhao.

　　LI He also contributed to this article.