European attempts to reduce carbon emissions are in deep trouble:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/european-carbon-markets-trouble-darkens-outlook-for-remedying-climate-change/2013/05/05/0178ccea-b30f-11e2-9fb1-62de9581c946_story.html?wpisrc=nl_headlines
Excerpts:
Under the system, 31 nations slapped emission limits on more than 11,000
companies and issued carbon credits that could be traded by firms to meet their
new pollution caps. More efficient ones could sell excess carbon credits, while
less efficient ones were compelled to buy more. By August 2008, the price for
carbon emission credits had soared above $40 per ton — high enough to become an
added incentive for some companies to increase their use of cleaner fuels,
upgrade equipment and take other steps to reduce carbon footprints.
Carbon “started as the commodity of the future, but it has now deteriorated,”
said Matthew Gray, a trader at Jefferies Bache in London and one of a
diminishing breed of carbon dealers in Europe. “Its future is uncertain.”
The problems plaguing Europe’s cap-and-trade system underscore the uphill
battle for international cooperation in the global-warming fight. After
middling progress at various summits, officials from more than 190 countries
have been charged with forging a global accord by 2015 aimed at cutting carbon
emissions. But critics point to the inability of even the European Union — a
largely progressive region bound by open borders and a shared bureaucracy — to
come together on a fix for its cap-and-trade system as evidence of how
difficult consensus building on climate change has become.
Ed
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