A promising prospect

Carbon trading is a financial activity that correlates closely with the real economy.

Through such a trading scheme, financial capital could go directly or indirectly into enterprises or projects to promote technological innovation, and company transformation and upgrading, which could ultimately reduce countries' reliance on fossil fuel and lower greenhouse gas emissions.

The World Bank predicted that global carbon trading could reach US$150 billion in 2012. The New Energy Finance, a Britain-based research firm, said in a June report that the world's carbon trading market could reach US$3.5 trillion by 2020.

Countries around the world are all making active efforts to setup and improve carbon emission markets in a bid to gain a leading position in the sector.

The EU-ETS aims to further tighten emission targets and increase carbon emissions trading in the third phase, which runs from 2012 to 2020. The United States is planning for a federal carbon trading market. Australia, Canada and Japan are also working on setting up policy frameworks, which would pave the way for their domestic carbon emission markets.

China is also expected to start real emissions-trading businesses in 2010, said Gao Zhengqi, general manager of the Tianjin Climate Exchange, China's first national emission trading marketplace.

(Xinhua News Agency December 11, 2009)