China's national carbon market starts online trading

BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhua) -- China's national carbon market started online trading Friday, a significant step to help the country reduce its carbon footprint and meet emission targets, according to the Ministry of Ecology and Environment.

Carbon emissions by over 2,000 power companies covered in the first batch of trading are estimated to exceed more than 4 billion tonnes per year. This means China's carbon trading market would become the world's largest in terms of the amount of greenhouse gas emissions covered.