The project "Sustainable Partners - Partners for Sustainability: Emerging Emission Trading Schemes in PRC" funded by the Robert Bosch Foundation aimed at establishing a close and sustainable cooperation between the department "Environmental and Resource Economics, Environmental Management" at the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and the "Institute of Energy, Environment, and Economy (IEEE)" at Tsinghua University in the field of Emission Trading Schemes. The cooperation with IEEE was complemented by further cooperations with 'local' Chinese partners, who individually worked on regional ETS pilot projects. The establishment of a national ETS or several local ETSs in China was an important and potentially effective and efficient step in reducing greenhouse gas emission in China. The German an European experience could help to improve the environmental and economic performance of the schemes, while the close and sustainable cooperation between the institutes also helped to identify feasible bottom-up initiatives between China and Germany in the international climate policy arena.