CHINA WILL CHARGE FOR SPEW

China to levy carbon tax before 2015 – report
David Stanway w/ Chris Lewis, January 5, 2012 (Reuters)

"China's biggest energy-consuming companies are likely to face a direct tax on carbon dioxide emissions by 2015, the Xinhua-backed Economic Information Daily reported…citing government sources…[P]roposals for a new environmental taxation system…were expected to be implemented before the end of the 2011-2015 five-year plan.

"…[T]he proposals include setting up an independent tax on greenhouse gas emissions that would focus on big consumers of coal, crude oil and natural gas…[and] call for the tax to be levied by as early as this year…[though] economic uncertainties would likely delay the launch."

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"The tax would begin at a rate of 10 yuan [$1.59, $1 = 6.2946 yuan] per tonne of carbon dioxide, and gradually increase depending on a company's emission levels…[It is no yet clear] when the higher tax bands would kick in…The National Bureau of Statistics…[is] working to set up a system to measure carbon emissions at major industrial companies, a move crucial to the country's plans to establish pilot carbon markets and a carbon tax.

"The country emitted 8.33 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2010, a quarter of the global total…Beijing has pledged to reduce carbon intensity -- the amount produced per unit of gross domestic product -- by 17 percent over 2011-2015, and big heavy industrial emitters will be compelled to cut CO2 produced per unit of output by more than 20 percent by the end of 2015…China is planning to launch a series of pilot carbon markets and is also mulling a [2011-2015] cap on overall energy and coal consumption…"