China’s Chongqing has handed out nearly 115.7 million permits to companies in its emissions trading scheme for 2014, the local government announced, around 9 million fewer than for 2013.

The permits were transferred to the 242 companies covered by the scheme last week, according to a statement on the Chongqing Development and Reform Commission website.

The reduced allocation was bigger than the government’s pledge to cut the number of permits by 4.13% each year.

The Chongqing market was the last of China’s seven pilot schemes to start when it launched in June 2014, but the emissions cap was backdated to Jan. 1, 2013.

Companies in the Chongqing ETS must by June 20 hand over permits to the government to cover their 2013 and 2014 emissions.

A handful of trades totaling 145,000 permits went through in the 30-31.50 yuan range on the opening day of the market, but since then not a single trade has been recorded on the local CO2 exchange, hosted by the Chongqing Carbon Emissions Trading Center.

By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com