BEIJING, June 5 (Xinhua) -- The Beijing Environmental Exchange on Friday launched a credit system to encourage car owners in the city to reduce their car use and thus cut emissions.
The exchange's mobile application allows each car owner to create an individual account to accumulate credits for rewards.
Previously, carbon emissions allowances were traded by firms. The new carbon-neutral solution provides a market-based incentive to encourage car owners to reduce their driving frequency and allows enterprises to buy emission quotas saved by car owners.
Wang Huijun, executive vice president of the exchange, said the average daily carbon dioxide emissions for an electric vehicle is 0.83 kg, while a fuel-powered vehicle with an engine of no more than 1.2 liters discharges 2.58 kg of carbon dioxide on average daily.
He said a driver can help cut carbon emissions by 1 tonne if he or she does not drive the car for about 200 days over a three-year period. The municipal authorities hope to bring 1 million car owners in the city to the one-tonne campaign with a target of reducing carbon emissions by 1 million tonnes within three years.
Beijing was among the 11 cities in China that had over 3 million cars on road by the end of 2019. Enditem