# China’s national carbon emissions trading scheme opens

Date: 2021

## The fact

On 16 July 2021 China’s national carbon emissions trading scheme opened in Shanghai, initially covering more than 2,000 power plants.

## Context

The Ministry of Ecology and Environment regulates. Xi had pledged a peak and neutrality the previous September. A 2017 soft launch had not traded. He did not sit as every plant compliance officer. Coverage later still had to expand beyond power.

The 2020 UNGA pledge and the October 2021 1+N plan are neighbouring climate instruments.

The General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party, concurrently President of the People’s Republic of China and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, can set the Politburo agenda, nominate the State Council leadership, and command the armed forces. He does not write UN General Assembly resolutions, OHCHR assessments, WHO emergency-use listings, or Hong Kong ordinances by himself.

## Evidence and sources

State Council of the PRC carries the official instrument or communique. Reuters records the same dated act independently.

## Significance

The path is [carbon-pricing coverage](/drivers/carbon-pricing-coverage): a completed national ETS is a dated price instrument, initially power-only and at a modest price.

## What is established and what is not

Established: a 16 July 2021 opening of a national ETS covering the power sector, recorded by the State Council and by independent wires.

Not established: a unique later national emissions coefficient from the opening print, or that every industrial sector was already covered.

What would change the picture: a contradictory original with a different date or name, a later repeal, a court that vacated the instrument, or a measured series that can be argued, with lag and alternatives, as a consequence of this instrument rather than of later institutions.

The date is the date of this instrument, not a licence to back-date every later harm or benefit.

MEE regulates. Power plants surrender allowances. He did not write the EU ETS.. A later repeal, court stay, or successor order would be a different Fact with a different date. That pair identifies China’s national carbon emissions trading scheme opens, not a later speech about China’s national carbon emissions trading scheme opens.

Co-authors and later implementers named in Context remain on the file. China’s national carbon emissions trading scheme opens on 2021-07-16 is not a licence to treat every later State Council of the PRC communique as this same act. If a later repeal, stay, or successor decree exists, it needs its own date and its own row. This dossier refuses to average China’s national carbon emissions trading scheme opens into a personality. The contribution described on this Person row is limited to He set the political mandate. MEE regulates. Power plants surrender allowances. He did not write the EU ETS. That limit is the alternative to treating office-holding as authorship of every later series. The National People’s Congress, the State Council, provincial governments, the People’s Liberation Army, Hong Kong’s executive, and foreign counterparties share specific files. Allegation is not a completed judgment. An OHCHR assessment is not a criminal conviction. A white paper is not a census. A UN pledge is not a delivered emissions path.

## People

- Xi Jinping: https://factrail.ai/people/xi-jinping

## Drivers

- Carbon-Pricing Coverage: https://factrail.ai/drivers/carbon-pricing-coverage
- Decarbonization and climate-mitigation policy: https://factrail.ai/drivers/env-decarbonization-policy

## Sources

- https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/chinas-national-carbon-emission-trading-opens-48-yuant-chinese-media-2021-07-16/
- https://english.www.gov.cn/news/topnews/202107/16/content_WS60f0d6c8c6d0df57f98dce3e.html

## Methodology

https://factrail.ai/methodology

Canonical: https://factrail.ai/facts/cn-national-ets-2021