Mobile Computing

Carbon trading is a method adopted to decrease the carbon emissions by industrialized countries, and the method has gained wide acceptance throughout the world in recent times. Carbon trading involves the sale and buying of carbon credits, where every single credit allows the emission of one thousand kilos of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases to the buyer, and is the primary element of the cap-and-trade system in use in several countries which are bound by the Kyoto Protocol.

According to the Kyoto protocol, a cap has been fixed on global emission allowances, which are then distributed into carbon credits, a certain number of which are allotted to each member. Companies that feel they may cross the emission limits can buy these credits from low-emission companies that have credits left with them because of adopting cleaner methods of doing business. High-emission operators are discouraged for their high emissions by this monetary compensation for polluting the atmosphere.

So far carbon trading has been a success, with market responses suggesting that several large companies across the world are advocating this emission-lowering solution. This is because carbon trading gives them flexibility in their short-term and medium-term planning.

Figures furnished by the World Bank’s Carbon Finance Unit confirm that the carbon trading business is increasing at a very fast rate every year. There has been an amazing growth from 41% to 240% in the carbon trading market between the years 2003 and 2005. The London based carbon finance market has also grown at an amazing rate, which makes it evident that the business of carbon trading is fetching good profits for many organizations in the world. Several states and industries in the US have also adopted carbon trading practices, even though the nation is not a signatory to the Kyoto Protocol. Besides, the EU with its own carbon trading system has also been playing a key role in the carbon trading market.

However, some sections of people are not convinced about the effectiveness of carbon trading. The immense growth in the carbon trading business indicates that organizations across the globe are in fact more eager to buy carbon credits instead of utilizing low emission energy options which has always been one of the objectives of carbon trading. Thus, carbon trading has been a matter of discussion in many parts of the world, and some specialists are of the belief that alternatives like taxation on extra carbon emissions is the better way to limit the greenhouse gas emissions.

Learn more about carbon credits and carbon offset and get a deeper understanding on how you can help in saving the environment. This and other unique content ’carbon trading’ articles are available with free reprint rights.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 11th, 2010 at 8:23 am and is filed under Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.