Qingdao in East China's Shandong Province has become the latest Chinese city to plan a market to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as a group of advisers backed by its mayor is hammering out rules for an emissions trading scheme that could start next year, Reuters reported Tuesday.

In a bid to meet a target of cutting carbon emissions per unit of GDP to 19-20 percent below 2010 levels by 2015, the city with local economy relying on heavy industry and petrochemicals now plans to impose binding carbon dioxide caps on up to 300 of its biggest companies and launch a market for trading carbon dioxide permits.