Carbon markets are a key driver for investment in the biggest emerging nations’ greenhouse-gas reducing efforts, and allowing them to collapse would be a “disaster,” according to the Center for American Progress.
The United Nations carbon market has spurred $356 billion of investment in emission cuts, encouraging climate-protection policies in at least 10 nations including China, India and Brazil, the Washington-based policy institute said in a study, citing UN data. More than 3,000 projects in China supported $202 billion in investment and seven pilot carbon markets.
Confidence in carbon markets is faltering as a surplus of emission permits and offsets pushes prices to record lows, deterring companies from investing in low-carbon technologies. Unflattering media coverage has also encouraged an incorrect perception worldwide that carbon markets are “fatally flawed,” according to the center’s report.
“If we let these things collapse, you’re going to undercut emission reduction in the nations where we see the biggest growth today,” Andrew Light, a co-author of the report, said today by phone from Washington. “There’s still a lot these markets can do” to help avert a warming climate.
Click here to read the full story.
