Chongqing has delayed the compliance deadline for its ETS participants by a month to July 23, analysts Crystal Carbon said, quoting unnamed municipal government sources.

The southwestern city had initially set a June 23 deadline, and has made no official announcement that the date had been postponed.

But according to Crystal Carbon, only 70% of the 237 scheme participants had surrendered permits by the deadline, sparking the DRC to allow emitters another month to meet their targets.

Even though 30% of market participants have yet to comply, only 31,700 permits have traded in the market since the original deadline passed, and the price is unchanged at 17.04 yuan ($2.74) since July 3.

The Chongqing ETS was launched in July 2014, but emitters must hand over allowances to cover both 2013 and 2014 emissions.

After the government adjusted initial allocation numbers, it issued 119.5 million allowances for 2013 and 106.3 million for 2014.

Chongqing will be the last of China’s seven pilot markets to finalise compliance for 2014.

Hubei and Tianjin also delayed their compliance deadlines, but set new dates at July 10, although not all emitters met that deadline.

By Stian Reklev – stian@carbon-pulse.com

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