Senior European negotiators at the Copenhagen Climate Change conference said on Thursday that carbon trading systems should be connected together, when other countries or regions have set them up.
So far only the EU has a trading system for carbon dioxide, though the US is expected to legislate for one this year and other countries are likely to follow.
Some market participants believe that when this happens, it could be beneficial to allow permits from one regime to be used, and hence traded, in another regime.
“Linking mandatory cap and trade schemes in the future could increase liquidity and reduce costs,” said Stavros Dimas, EU environment commissioner.
Dimas said the EU was in favour of a gradual shift towards emissions trading in developing countries. The Clean Development Mechanism “could be a stepping stone to cap and trade in developing countries at a later stage,” he said....