Is CO2 trading successful?

Or just a drop in the ocean?

According to an estimate by the United Nation’s Climate Change Secretariat, the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), called into being in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol, will have generated a total of more than one billion tons of CO₂ reductions by the end of 2012. This represents ‘the annual emissions of Spain and the United Kingdom combined’. That may sound like a lot, but it calls for two remarks. First, cumulative figures are combined with annual figures. Second, in the context of global climate change, it is still a small figure.

The European Emissions Trading Scheme estimates the assignment of rights will be around 10 billion tons of CO₂ emission in the period between 2008 and 2012. Again, two remarks are in order. No figures are given on how much actual CO₂ emission reduction these trading rights will bring about. Second, this figure remains small in comparison to the context. Today, we are producing an annual amount of 30 billion tons of CO₂ emissions worldwide. Without preventive action, this figure is expected to rise to 60 billion tons of CO₂ emission by 2050. This means that, to bring emissions back to the current value by 2050, we must save a combined total of 750 billion tons CO₂.

References:

Press release of the United Nations, 9 June 2006: >>