According to a report by the 21st Century Business Herald, on January 22, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) issued the "Notice on Effectively Conducting Key Tasks for the Launch of the National Carbon Emission Trading Market" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), outlining the work related to the construction of the carbon emission trading market. The Notice clearly stated that the quota allocation plan for the national carbon emission trading system would be introduced and implemented in 2016, and the national carbon emission trading would be launched in 2017, marking the implementation of the carbon emission trading system.

The Notice pointed out that the first phase of the national carbon emission trading market would cover key high-emission industries such as chemicals, steel, and non-ferrous metals. Participants would include corporate legal entities or independent accounting enterprises in these key industries whose total comprehensive energy consumption reached or exceeded 10,000 tons of standard coal in any year between 2013 and 2015.

Industry insiders predicted that if the national carbon trading market were established, the volume of carbon emission trading covered could expand to 3-4 billion tons. By 2020, if a derivatives market were established, the scale of the carbon market was expected to reach nearly 50 billion or even 100 billion yuan. This would create significant market development opportunities for industries involved in environmental protection and energy-saving equipment upgrades, carbon emission-related services, as well as carbon capture services and carbon sink-related sectors.