A senior official of China's top economic planning body said Wednesday that conditions for the country to launch a carbon emission rights trading system remain premature.

"China has yet to take on quantitative caps on emissions. Thus, there is no basis for carbon emission rights trading in China right now," Xie Zhenhua, deputy chief of the National Development and Reform Commission, told a press conference Wednesday.

However, he said the measures taken by the government to combat climate change would become increasingly strict and emission reduction goals would become increasingly quantified.

It requires a certain length of time for China to trade carbon emission rights, Xie said.

He also said China would likely reach its goal of improving energy efficiency by 20 percent from 2006 to 2010.