Beijing levies carbon emission fines on 5 firms, including Microsoft   

(ECNS) -- Microsoft China and four other firms in Beijing have been fined for not opening accounts in the city's carbon trading platform by June 27, the compliance deadline.

The city's energy-saving supervision team went to the five firms Wednesday to collect evidence and will issue a written notification in two weeks, which will be the city's first fines for carbon emissions.

All five firms' carbon emission exceeds separate quotas, the team said, and Microsoft China exceeded carbon permits by 400 tons.

Beijing is one of China's seven carbon trading pilot markets, and the others are Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangdong, Hubei and Shenzhen.

By July 1, big emitters traded up to 1.6 million carbon permits on the capital's pilot emissions market in its first seven months, according to data from the trading platform, the China Beijing Environment Exchange.