Indeed, the National Development and Reform Commission's designated eight sectors to kick off the national emissions trading program are all pretty traditional industries and heavy coal burners: petrochemicals, power, chemicals, construction materials, nonferrous metals, steel, papermaking and aviation.
In China there are now 2,000 plants that have been assigned carbon quotas under the pilot programs. Li said his services have been sought primarily by solar energy plants, wind power companies, waste-burning electricity companies and clean coal power plants — all of whom are likely to have quota surpluses to sell.
China Tianying Inc, one of the nation's largest waste disposal and energy-generation groups, is now expanding into venture capital related to carbon footprints.
According to a researcher at China Tianying who declined to be identified, the company is now looking at a polymer recycling company for possible acquisition and is monitoring the progress of a new process developed by Germany-based Covestro that converts carbon dioxide into plastic foam.
The carbon dioxide recycling technology began as a pilot project in Germany on June 17, with an investment of 15 million euros ($16.6 million). Should the project succeed, the researcher said the company may bring the technology to China.
Reborn of an aborted project
Yuan Qi is the general manager of a company named Yiyong, which produces light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that are more energy efficient than incandescent lighting. The company, founded in 2008, was invited by the Shanghai government to install LED street lamps for Shanghai World Expo 2010, but the project never materialized.
The technology didn't surface again until 2014, when the government of Fengxian District installed Yiyong LED lighting on a five-kilometer-long street.
According to the Shanghai Energy Efficiency Center, the project helps save 350 yuan a day in lighting costs. The LED lighting consumes only half the energy of standard incandescent lights.
Yuan is still skeptical about the prospects. The Shanghai government last year proposed that about 2 million street lamps in Pudong New District be converted to LEDs as an energy-saving pilot project.
It hasn't happened yet.
"You just never know when it will," Yuan said.
He added that action will be needed by the government to convince most industries to adopt energy-saving, low emission technologies in the future.
An officer at the Shanghai Commission of Economy and Information Technology told Shanghai Daily that the government has been somewhat hesitant to apply LED technology because they need more time to evaluate the system.
"What if the LEDs don't work after two years' use?" he asked. "What we are risking is not only the safety of residents but also the expense of the new system."
On June 30, the Shanghai government reported that 51.1 million tons of carbon has been traded in the last three years of the pilot project, generating 621 million yuan of turnover.
However, most of the companies benefiting from the trading have been state-owned solar, wind, photovoltaic and clean coal power plants such as Shanghai Waigaoqiao No. 3 Power Generation Co, which sold 5,000 tons of carbon quota on the first trading day of 2013.
Feng Weizhong, the general manager of the power plant, said the revenue companies collect under the current trading mechanism is pretty minor, suggesting that the incentives for reduced emissions are still not sweet enough.
