Other derivative markets have faltered in 2009, but carbon trading has gone right on booming. Participants are enthusiastic about the EU market, which is set to flourish. But the real challenge is to implement these ideas elsewhere – first in the US and then the wider world. As Siân Williams reports, the specialist firms are eager to start, but there will be no market until politicians, industry and the public overcome their fears.
In the city of Leshan in China’s Sichuan province, a hydroelectricity project is under way. One of the aims is to earn Carbon Emission Reduction certificates, which can be sold in Europe to companies wanting to exceed their carbon dioxide pollution limits.
Yet the future of projects such as this depends not just on what is happening in Europe, but on political debates from Washington to Ouagadougou.
This coming December, world leaders will...