CARBON MARKET TRIPLES!

Merging two articles for a little extra value.

World Bank: Global Carbon Market Triples
May 2, 2007 (UPI)
Carbon credits market triples
Fiona Harvey, May 2, 2007 (Financial Times)
WHO
The World Bank (Warren Evans, director of environment)
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WHAT
Bank report "State and Trends of the Carbon Market 2007": The traded “value” of carbon emissions, went from a total of $10 billion in 2005 to a total of $30 billion in 2006.
Acoording to the Financial Times, is a major tie-up in monitoring and verification, due to a shortage of trained technicians.

WHEN
Report released May 1, summarizing the 2005-06 period as well as providing statistical info looking back to 2002 and ahead to 2010.

WHERE
Report released in Cologne, Germany, at CARBON EXPO.
China was the biggest seller, at 61% of the credits, India 12%, Brazil 4%. The UK was the biggest purchaser, buying 50%.

WHY
2006: European Union Allowances--$25 billion, projects-based market (developing countries and nations in transition)--$5 billion.
Since 2002: Kyoto Protocol Mechanisms generated $8 billion; direct carbon purchases (resulting developing nation investments)--$16 billion.
Also: 1 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions reduced, 1 billion more contracted through 2012.
Voluntary market also increasing: 50 companies presently offer offsets; 400 million tons estimated to be voluntarily eliminated by 2010.
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QUOTES
- Evans: "These numbers are relevant because they demonstrate that the carbon market has become a valuable catalyst for leveraging substantial financial flows for clean energy in developing countries…"
- Karan Capoor, World Bank financial specialist: "These figures show the important contribution of the developing world to climate change mitigation…The additional billion tons from developing countries amounts to half of what Japan and the European Union together need to reduce, from now until the end of the Kyoto Protocol commitment period."
- Abyd Karmali, managing director, ICF International: “This [monitoring and verification] is a bottleneck. It’s just a matter of time before there is a capacity crunch and we find additional delays [to] projects.”