| Sourced From En.cop15.dk |
While in the past carbon credit prices have been highly volatile, in a larger post-Copenhagen market the credits may be seen by investors as solid ground.
During the next decade or two, the global market for carbon credits is likely to grow to three trillion US dollars, or twice the size of today’s oil market. And at the same time the credits may depart from the role of a highly uncertain investment “with it even being used as a hedge against falling equities or rising inflation.” This according to the Guardian, quoting Andrew Ager, head of emissions trading at Bache Commodities, UK.
Today the emissions trading scheme (ETS) of the EU is the world’s only major market, but the US, Australia and a number of other countries have indicated that they have similar schemes underway.
“The speed of that growth will depend on whether the Copenhagen summit gives a go-ahead for a low-carbon economy, but Ager says whatever happens schemes such as the ETS will expand around the globe,” the Guardian reports.
Critics have argued that the carbon market is lacking transparency as the real sellers and buyers are hiding behind brokers, but this is only a natural development as the market matures, according to Alexandria Galin, a policy maker for the Carbon Markets and Investors Association:
“Financial institutions participate in the market on behalf of businesses that do not have the capacity or expertise to do it themselves.”
Morten Andersen
