The municipal government of Chengde in China’s Hebei province is set to expand its involvement in neighbouring Beijing’s carbon market by signing up iron and steel plants and power generators, local media reported Tuesday.

Chengde signed up the city’s six cement factories to the Beijing ETS last December, the first move towards a cross-provincial carbon market in China.

The move was intended to be a first step towards integrating markets in the Beijing-Hebei-Tianjin region, but progress has been slow since and the government of Hebei – one of China’s most polluted provinces – has not taken further steps towards developing rules and regulations for a CO2 market.

Instead, Chengde is set to ask more of its local firms to join the Beijing market, according to newspaper Beijing Business Today.

It said four or five iron and steel producers, as well as two or three power producers, are likely to join the capital’s ETS, citing Zhao Zhenxing, an official with the Chengde Development and Reform Commission.

The move comes despite slow progress in integrating the six Chengde cement producers in the Beijing scheme.

Their involvement in the Beijing ETS was announced in December, but an allocation plan for them is only expected to be announced later this month.

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