Carbon trading: can market mechanisms save the planet?
According to the Stern report on climate change, market mechanisms can save the planet. There is no need for nasty nasty regulatory controls on carbon emissions, we are told. Instead, we should establish a price for the ‘right’ to generate a tonne of carbon, and then issue companies with a set number of permits and give them the right to buy or sell the permits like shares on a stock market. Too little, too late, as this analysis of the existing EU emissions trading scheme in today’s Financial Times makes clear: ‘The scheme has not forced utilities to change their behaviour by switching from coal to cleaner fuels such as natural gas. ‘In fact, the EU is projected to burn 10m tonnes of coal more this year than it did last year, and the UK will import the largest amount of coal in its history. ‘Gerard McCloskey, chairman of McCloskey Group, a coal research and publishing company, said the UK was projected to import 42m-43m tonnes of coal this year, up from a record 35m last year … ‘It is
