FIASCO? Meltdown? Not quite. OK, so the new European Union’s emissions trading system got off to a shaky start. The EU released figures this week showing that governments requested permits to release far more greenhouse gas than their industries actually emit. The market in these permits slumped as a result. This is hardly good news, but it need be nothing more than teething trouble.
First, the present trading round is just a pilot phase. The real business starts in 2008, when the Kyoto protocol’s legally binding national targets on greenhouse gases take force. Second, whatever the prices, the market is…
