China’s emissions trading: no impact on the climate

China’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) launched in the summer of 2021 with high hopes. It is the largest ETS in the world and covers 40 percent of all Chinese emissions – 4.5 billion tonnes of carbon per year. Unfortunately, however, the system is plagued by design flaws that at best improve the efficiency of power plants, but cannot help reduce emissions. And frequent problems arise with the submitted emissions data. Analysts predict that it will take until the end of the decade before China’s emissions trading is effectively revised.