The Hubei carbon exchange is offering to waive fees for trading houses and out-of-province emitters that sign up as members before Sep. 30, in what may be seen as a move to strengthen its bid to play a part in China’s national emissions market.

The exchange said in a note that brokerages – which in China can mean companies that do both brokering and trading –  joining before Sep. 30 will not have to pay the standard 100,000 yuan ($15,600) one-off license fee or the annual 50,000 yuan membership fee.

It also encouraged major emitters in provinces that don’t have pilot markets to open trading accounts, and said it would return 90% of their commission fees.

The Hubei market has seen by far the biggest traded volumes of China’s seven pilot schemes, but like all the pilot exchanges, its trading platform is continuing to look for ways to attract more members and generate as much revenue as possible for the one or two years the pilot markets have left before they are replaced by a national market.

It remains unclear how many of the pilot exchanges will be allowed to operate in the national market, but the NDRC has indicated that it might restrict the number in order to avoid fragmentation of market liquidity.

Hubei is in intense competition with the exchanges in Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai to secure a role in the national market, and having a portfolio of professional traders and major non-local emitters among its membership would unquestionably strengthen its bid.

By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com

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