1 April 2009
Emissions-trading in the spotlight as the price of carbon sinks
Like the price of oil, the price of carbon in the EU's Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) has fallen by around two thirds since mid-2008. This has raised doubts about renewable-energy developers' ability to fund projects during the recession, cut incentives for companies to lower emissions and undermined demand for green energy. This could create embarrassment for EU policymakers in the run-up to the Copenhagen climate change summit in December. In terms of volume, the ETS is increasingly successful. Almost 0.7bn tonnes of carbon, valued at more than €6.5bn ($8.3bn), were traded on the six main European exchanges in February – a volume rise of around 60% over January, and nearly 150% more than t
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