China has a pilot program of emissions trading starting this year, reports Reuters in Climate Spectator. "It is possible in the next year we'll see some kind of carbon tax implemented," according to Qi Ye, director of the non-governmental Climate Policy Initiative at Tsinghua University in Beijing. In certain provinces, the Chinese government "is considering an absolute cap on coal consumption."Reuters reports that China is on target to cut its energy intensity by 20 percent from 2005 levels.

China is on its way to meeting its own ambitious targets for 2010. A renewable energy law promotes development of hydro-electric and solar power, and the closing of small, inefficient power plants. China's next five-year plan calls for a 16 percent reduction in energy intensity. China's overall emissions of climate-warming carbon dioxide are rising fast as its economy grows but more energy efficiency is helping to bring down energy intensity (the amount of power consumed for every dollar of economic output ).

China also wants to have 15 percent of its energy to come from non-fossil fuels by 2020, another difficult goal, said Trevor Houser, of the New York economic researcher the Rhodium Group. "Even if they (the Chinese) get halfway there, this will transform fundamentally the global market for clean energy technology," Houser said. "It'll change its price-points, it'll change the relative economics of low-carbon technology versus high-carbon technology, and not just in China but other places."