February 11, 2008 (Reuters) – Anshan Iron and Steel Group, the parent of China’s third-biggest steel firm Angang Steel Co. Ltd., will sell $218 million of greenhouse gas credits to two international carbon credit investors, China’s Xinhua news agency said on Saturday. The company, based in northeast China, said it would sell 13 million tons of carbon credits to the European Carbon Fund (ECF) and Camco International.
Carbon trading under the Kyoto Protocol, worth $3 billion last year, allows rich nations to buy permits called carbon credits to emit greenhouse gases from poor nations.
The Anshan deal was the first Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project for the steel maker, and comes after China officially launched a non-profit CDM fund last July to help raise awareness of climate change and cut emissions.
China expects to raise $1.5 billion by 2012 from a levy on sales of carbon credits, which would be used to finance the CDM fund, the world’s first such fund.
China has already green-lighted 885 such CDM projects, which would generate $15 billion by supplying 1.5 billion metric tons of carbon credits. ($=7.18 yuan)
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