Carbon Trading On The Horizon

Barely two weeks ago, federal environment minister, John Baird, rejected the notion of an international carbon trading market. That, however, was before opposition MPs passed a bill requiring compliance with the Kyoto Protocol and before Prime Minister Harper promised to produce a compliance plan. With those developments and others, an emissions cap-and-trade system may not be far off.

British Columbia recently announced that it would be introducing its own measures to meet Kyoto targets by 2020. Earlier this month, Australia announced that over the next four months, it would be considering a national carbon trading system. In the United States, long a hold-out on Kyoto and global warming initiatives, the tide also seems to be turning: California recently adopted legislation mandating carbon emissions limits and providing for emissions trading, and earlier this year, the newly formed US Climate Action Partnership – a coalition of industry giants including GE, Duke Energy, Lehman