Dutch consultancy Ecofys, among the most prominent foreign consultancies in the carbon space in China in recent years, is closing its Beijing office.

Ecofys advised the Tianjin government in designing its emissions trading scheme and has also carried out an EU-funded €5-million technical study on the planned national Chinese emissions market with local consultants Sino Carbon.

“Based on a detailed business and market analysis, the Ecofys management team decided to close the Ecofys Beijing representative office and pursue further opportunities in Asia from within its European offices,” Maarten Neelis, the company’s regional manager for China, said in an email to contacts on Thursday.

Neelis will return to the Netherlands in early July where he will continue working for Ecofys, but Carbon Pulse understands the company’s China-based carbon analysts have been let go. Six people worked in the Ecofys Beijing office.

According to sources, Ecofys will finalise its projects currently ongoing in China, but using EU-based staff.

The move comes just days ahead of the EU-China summit, where a deal is expected to be agreed involving continued EU funding of China’s domestic carbon market development.

By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com