China's plan to establish a carbon Emissions Trading System (ETS) is of great significance to the development of its low-carbon economy, a German climate expert said Monday.

China played a very important role at the just-concluded Durban climate change conference, Ottmar Edenhofer, deputy director and chief economist with the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, said in an interview with Xinhua.

Edenhofer said the results achieved in Durban went beyond his expectations.

"It is a very promising starting point for an internationally and legally binding agreement... We might achieve a legally binding agreement by 2020," he said.

The expert said that, in the next 10 years, developing countries, such as China and India, should not build their transport systems, houses and other infrastructure at the price of high carbon emissions.

"This highly carbon intensive capital stock would not allow us in the future to reduce emissions at a reasonable cost," he said.

China has planned to set up its domestic ETS during 2011-2015, the period for its 12th five-year national development plan, aimed at eventually using market means to reduce carbon emissions.

Edenhofer said investors in China would find they have to reduce carbon emissions and save costs, adding the system would also promote green technology innovation in China.

China and Europe could cooperate in establishing the emission trading scheme as Europe has some experience in this field, Edenhofer said. China could learn from Europe's mistakes and thereby make a quick leap forward.

"So this could be a good starting point of a mutual learning process between China and Europe," he said.

Launched in 2005, the EU's ETS was the first and biggest international scheme for the trading of greenhouse gas emissions allowances.

The system now operates in 30 countries, covering some 11,000 power stations and industrial plants. Within the ETS, companies and plants receive emission allowances, which they can sell to or buy from one another as needed.

Besides the ETS, Edenhofer said, China and Europe could closely cooperate in such fields as environment-friendly technology and carbon capture storage.

"I think one of the most important challenges in the future for Europe is energy storage. How can we store renewable energy? Here we have to set up some kind of research projects and also need to cooperate with China," he said.

The Durban conference decided to launch a green climate fund and set up a fund management mechanism, which Edenhofer said could play an important role in supporting developing countries and carrying out climate-friendly investment.

"Africa will build new cities in the next 10 years, next 20 years. If such a green climate fund could support Africa to build up sustainable cities, it could be a really important step forward," he said. "This could be a very promising challenge for the green climate fund to support Africa in designing green cities."

On UN climate talks, Edenhofer said the conferences in Copenhagen, Cancun and Durban were a kind of institution building process, which allowed the international community to carry out a coordinated climate policy.

"But the negotiations within the United Nations framework convention are not efficient enough. We need to do more, we need a double track. And another track should be a negotiation within the G20," he said.

Edenhofer said negotiations within the G20 would enhance bilateral agreements between countries.

"In the end, there could be a very successful way to achieve more and to make Durban a real success," he said.