State and Regional Carbon Reduction Markets in the United States:Key Developments and Links with Global Carbon Reduction Markets

摘要

Climate change and efforts to address it seem to be an inescapable topic in the popular media as well as the business press,from the Oscars (where Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth won best documentary feature),to the 45 billion buyout of TXU (where private equity firms,negotiating directly with environmental groups,agreed to shelve plans for several controversial coal-burning power plants).We are witnessing not only a sea change in public awareness about the impacts of climate change,but also the birth of a significant carbon trading market,especially in Europe.The next challenge will be creating effective linkages between the European carbon market and emerging North American carbon trading programs.Ultimately,a truly global carbon market will be necessary to achieve needed reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.