If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our or .
| Sourced From |
LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Despite the global value of carbon markets falling from €92 billion in 2008 to an estimated €63 billion in 2009, volumes of carbon credits continue to rise with carbon markets expected to treble in size by 2012. Evidence in the new Earthscan book Carbon Markets: An International Business Guide, suggests that irrespective of any agreement in Copenhagen, growth will be driven by new emissions-trading schemes in the US, Australia and New Zealand and the broadening of the European Emissions-Trading Scheme (EU-ETS).
Japan and Canada are also likely to move towards a regulated ETS and the degree to which US and EU legislators will be prepared to use trade sanctions against countries without appropriate carbon pricing policies will catalyze carbon further market development.
“The financial crisis has put many governments on the defensive when it comes to climate policy,” co-author Arnaud Brohé said. “However, it is also heralding what some are now calling the ‘Green New Deal’ and is bringing on a wave of creative destruction on a scale not seen for decades, with emissions-trading central to the regulatory push towards improving sustainability across a range of sectors.”
As of March 2009 around $429 billion had already been earmarked for ‘green initiatives’ as part of government stimulus packages totaling $2451 billion (HSBC, 2009).
Co-author Nicholas Howarth observes that “the appeal of emissions trading lies in the way it simultaneously supports innovation and entrepreneurship with the desire of regulators to set tight standards. Unlike taxation, it has clear goals that politicians find easy to communicate to the public. It also provides a useful signal for international cooperation.”
Lord Nicholas Stern reinforces this argument in the foreword to the book: “emissions-trading has emerged as one of the most important tools for reducing… climate risks… The market it creates promotes efficiency and the caps on which it is based give greater confidence in quantity reductions than a purely tax-based mechanism… Providing a strong, stable carbon price is the single policy action that is likely to have the biggest effect in improving economic efficiency and tackling the climate crisis.”
The carbon emissions resulting from the production of Carbon Markets: An International Business Guide have been calculated, reduced and offset to render the book ‘carbon neutral’ in partnership with CO2logic.
Contacts
Earthscan
Dan Harding
+44(0)207-841-1953
[email protected]
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
This is an excellent book to understand how carbon markets work. The book is objective and give a good overview of the pro’s and con’s of these environmental markets. Clearly carbon markets will play a key role in any future global climate agreement so anyone who is interested in environmental issues and international affairs should read this book.
Leave a Comment