(Yicai Global) Feb. 19 -- China will set up a  carbon emission futures trading platform in Guangzhou, the provincial  capital of southern Guangdong province, as part of efforts to help the  development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The country's State Council released a new  development plan for the region yesterday, stating that China must  "promote low-carbon pilot demonstration zones, implement near-zero  carbon emission demonstration zone projects and accelerate research and  development of low-carbon technologies."

China has set up carbon emissions exchanges in  seven cities including Beijing, Shanghai Guangzhou and Shenzhen since  the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris. The country  has traded the equivalent of 197 million tons of carbon dioxide as of  September 2017, according to official data.

Shanghai runs through three futures exchanges,  while Dalian and Zhengzhou are also home to commodity exchanges. The  platform in Guangzhou will be the first in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau  Greater Bay Area and has long been called for by market participants. 

Guangzhou must go in a different direction from the  others if it wants to set up its own futures exchange, GF Futures'  former General Manager Xiao Cheng told Yicai Global, adding that in  addition to launching new products, it could also consider commodity  price index futures products.

The city will do its best to gain the approval from  the central government to set up a green finance reform and innovation  pilot zone, Qiu Yitong, director of the Guangzhou Municipal Financial  Regulatory Bureau, said at a meeting in 2016. The zone will promote  green credit, green bonds and insurance, carbon finance and other  innovative financial products.

Editor: William Clegg