The article in the url below tracks the introduction of the EU’s carbon trading scheme, which, in spite of several teething issues, remains resilient:
“The global trade in greenhouse gases was worth about Euros 40bn last year, up 80 per cent on the previous year, and is expected to increase to Euros 63bn (Dollars 98bn) next year, according to Point Carbon, the market analysts. Most of the trading was carried out under the EU's emissions trading scheme, but about Euros 12bn came from the United Nations system of emissions trading under the Kyoto protocol.”
The problems identified in the article reinforce the message I get from everything I read about carbon trading, which is that a carbon tax would be a much more fair and equitable method of arriving at a more realistic price for carbon (and reducing consumption). Unfortunately, however, it is politicians who decide the framework in which such decisions are made and there seems to be heavy reluctance to touch any kind of ‘tax’ with a barge pole:
“The cap on carbon has been tightened for the second phase of the scheme, which runs to 2012. Instead of a surplus, there should be a difference of a few per cent between what companies are expected to emit and the number of permits they have been allocated. However, this could be substantially affected by a worsening economic situation - any industrial slowdown would lead to a decline in emissions, narrowing the shortage of permits and cutting their price. The uncertain future of the market was also underlined when the European Commission unveiled its proposals for emissions cuts earlier this year, when a row broke out over whether companies should have to buy their carbon permits after 2013, when the scheme enters its third phase.”
Take care
Dave
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther
Carbon trading grunts into life.
By FIONA HARVEY
703 words
2 April 2008
Financial Times
Asia Ed1
Page 17
http://us.ft.com/ftgateway/superpage.ft?news_id=fto040120081606556621
