Global environmental exchange operators are seeking partnerships in China to assure a place in the fledgling carbon emission trading market as the nation heads toward becoming a world leader in the low-carbon sector.

NYSE Blue, a new joint venture of exchange operator NYSE Euronext and carbon trading market infrastructure provider APX, is responding to emerging market opportunities in China. It is setting its sights on voluntary market activity in the country.

It has undertaken a joint project with the China Beijing Environment Exchange - the voluntary Panda Standard, which NYSE Blue hopes can become mandatory in the future.

"A carbon trading market is taking shape here," said Brian Storms, NYSE Blue's chief executive officer.

By 2020, China intends to reduce carbon emissions per unit of gross domestic product by 40 to 45 percent from 2005 levels.

The country has also been pushing ahead with ambitious plans to build low-carbon businesses. Incentive-backed renewable energy goals helped China become the leading manufacturer of wind turbines last year. The nation is also expected to surpass the United States to take a leading role in installed wind power capacity.

China's top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), is proposing to build a mandatory domestic carbon trading system.

A draft regulation on voluntary emissions trading was "almost ready" and will be issued "as soon as possible," Wang Shu, an official with the NDRC's climate change department, said at the United Nations climate talks in Tianjin in October.

"China is getting aggressive in the low-carbon market," said Storms.

All of these factors have attracted NYSE Blue to China, where it is discussing partnerships with local companies to build software that measures greenhouse gases. These measurements would be used in emission reporting, an important part of the carbon trading market.

"China could be the largest carbon trading market, and we expect it to account for as much as half of our business," Storms said.

Meanwhile, Intercontinental Exchange, the parent of Chicago Climate Exchange which partners with China's Tianjin Climate Exchange, also wants to get a foothold in the market, providing technologies and platforms involved in carbon trading as well as practical experience in carbon trading market designs, according to Jeffrey Sprecher, its chairman, who recently made an introductory tour of China.