Carbon Credits Edge Toward Becoming a Worthwhile Trading Card. (January 8, 2005)

    Now that Vladimir Putin, for whatever reason, has pushed Russia into ratifying the Kyoto Protocol it's just possible that some real, if slow, progress will be made toward limiting the anthropogenic release of CO₂ into the Earth's atmosphere. With the launch of the European Union's Emissions Trading Scheme on New Year's Day, activity is increasing in international carbon credits exchange.

Each member of the EU now has a national allocation of carbon credits, and the object is to reduce emissions by  ~1% per annum during the initial phase due to be completed in 2007. It is up to each country to allocate the credits as it sees appropriate to its industries who in turn may buy credits (allowing them to increase the amount of CO₂ they may contribute to the atmosphere) or sell them (which can be a nice little earner if they keep their emissions well below their allowance).

A company that exceeds its limit based on its allowance, plus or minus any credits traded, faces a fine of  €40 (A$90) for every tonne of excess carbon dioxide that it emits.

Nature reports that on  January 6, London-based brokers CO2e.com oversaw credit deals involving some 600,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, and since the end of December the going market rate has dropped from €8.5 to €7.65 per tonne of CO₂. Reena Qureshi of CO2e.com told Nature she suspects that a drop in the use of coal has caused predicted carbon-dioxide emission levels to drop, making carbon credits less valuable.

In any case if the imposition of fines is enforced, buying carbon credits is a lot cheaper than being fined.