BEIJING, July 16 (TMTPOST) — The highly anticipated Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) market of China was launched on Friday. The emission quota price opened at RMB48 per ton. The first deal took place two minutes after the ETS market started trading. Similar to other carbon markets, emission permits are allocated to participating companies, which they can use to cover their own emissions or sell on the exchange. It is worth noting that the allocation of permits is based on carbon intensity or the amount of emissions per unit of power generation, rather than absolute levels, according to a news report from Reuters. The ETS market is designed to incentivize carbon emission peaks and encourage companies to transition into low-carbon or carbon-free production.