BEIJING - Beijing launched its first quota trading platform for electrical power saved during production in a bid to boost the energy service sector and let the market play a bigger role in fighting climate change.

Quotas equivalent to 216.6 tons of standard coal have been traded, with the combined transaction volume reaching 130,000 yuan ($20,680) on the Beijing Environment Exchange, Monday's China Securities Journal reported.

The trading marks the first time that energy-hungry companies have been allowed to purchase power quotas from more efficient enterprises in order to stay below their power consumption cap.

The transactions were not handled by power users directly, but by their energy service providers, or companies that have introduced energy solutions in exchange for power quotas saved through their energy-saving technology.

Dong Xiaofeng, senior manager of the Shenzhen Wancheng Company, said his company sold quotas worth 100 tons of standard coal this time, the earnings of which are to be shared with its clients.

Meanwhile, Mo Jiayin, chairman of the board of one of the buyers, said he will not rush to sell the just-purchased quotas to needy enterprises but will wait until prices go higher.

In 2012, the number of energy service companies increased 7 percent year on year to reach 4,175, with six companies seeing their annual output value exceed 1 billion yuan, according to an industrial report released on Jan 15 by the ESCO Committee of the China Energy Conservation Association.

China has adopted multiple market-oriented methods to encourage energy saving and cut emissions, including a pilot carbon market program that has been approved in seven regions, including Beijing and Shanghai.

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