Carbon Trading and the Semiconductor Industry

摘要

Over the next decade, the market for fluorinated emissions trading is estimated at $4.3B. The largest potential trading revenues are in countries with binding emissions reduction commitments under the Kyoto Protocol. For countries that don't participate in the Kyoto Protocol, emissions reduction credit levels are voluntary and lower. rnGreenhouse gas (GHG) emissions trading is being widely adopted as one of the solutions to tackle climate change. While most cap-and-trade regimes have so far been confined to carbon dioxide (CO_2)-intensive industrial sectors such as energy production, oil refineries, mineral and metal production, a significant opportunity exists for the semiconductor industry to participate in these emerging markets and mitigate emissions, while generating additional revenues through the sale of carbon credits. In particular, reducing the emissions of fluorinated compounds (FCs) from etch and CVD chamber cleaning processes can yield large amounts of credits due to the high global warming potentials (GWPs) of these gases. For example, sulfur hexafluoride (SF_6) has a GWP of 22,800; preventing emissions of 1 kg of SF_6 is equivalent to reducing emissions of 22.8 tonnes of CO_2, which would in turn generate 22.8 emissions credits.