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By Bloomberg

China, the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter, plans to start a nationwide carbon market in the next two years following a pledge to cap emissions by 2030.

Opening in 2016, the market would have matured by 2020, Su Wei, an official at the climate change department under the National Development and Reform Commission, said today at a press conference in Beijing. China, which is working on an absolute control plan for carbon emissions, may announce rules for carbon-permit trading as early as the end of the year, Su said.

President Xi Jinping for the first time set a target date for capping emissions under an agreement with U.S. President Barack Obama on Nov. 12. China will begin reducing its total carbon dioxide emission by about 2030 and is “confident” of meeting the peak timeline, Xie Zhenhua, vice chairman of NDRC, said in the same briefing today, calling the agreement “win- win” for both nations.

Seven test regions in China traded a combined 13.75 million metric tons of carbon dioxide as of October, totaling 500 million yuan ($81 million). China’s energy use per gross domestic product unit fell by 4.6 percent between January and September from the same period last year and its carbon intensity dropped by 5 percent, according to Xie Zhenhua.

China aims to cut its 2020 carbon intensity by 45 percent from the 2005 level and expects all nations to review their climate change targets set before 2020 in the meeting at Lima due to take place from Dec. 1 to Dec. 12, according to Xie Zhenhua.