Thursday, 03 March 2016
China wants to reduce its reliance on coal by setting up a market for renewable energy certificates. The country’s National Energy Administration (NEA) stated on their webpage that power suppliers will be able to trade certificates from non-hydro renewable energy The statement neither gives a timeline for the establishment of a green certificate trading platform nor does it give more detailed information of the nature of the green certificates themselves. However, targets were set for the promotion of renewable energy: power plants will have to achieve a minimum 9% share of green power in their output by 2020. The NEA suggests that this goal can be achieved by trading renewable energy certificates.