Carbon Trust launches cleantech exchange with China

The UK's Carbon Trust said today it signed a £10 million deal with Sichuan, China-based China Energy Conservation Investment (CECIC) to ease the transition of British clean technologies into the Chinese market.

Each firm is expected to contribute half of the program's cost, but private investors will be sought to provide up to £100 million in the next five years.

CECIC is a state-owned firm that's the only national-level investment company in energy conservation and environmental protection (see China embraces cleaner bricks). It has more than 60 subsidiaries and 10,000 employees in China.

Late last year, London's BP (NYSE: BP) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences said they planned to jointly invest 500 million RMB ($73 million USD) in the next five years to develop a cleantech commercialization center in Shanghai (see BP, China to invest $73M in cleantech center).