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Firms urged to tap into global carbon emissions market
DUBAI — Trading in carbon emissions has created a global carbon market estimated to be worth more than $30 billion this year, according to the Nordic-based think-tank Point Carbon.
And companies in the GCC could tap into this market if a cost were placed on carbon emissions and a value on emission reductions, to create a trade in the resulting allowances or credits. There are a host of other investment opportunities springing up in the carbon market as well.
Rod Beckstrom, co-founder of The Environmental Markets Network and a speaker at DIFCweek in November, says: "This multi-billion dollar market opportunity has emerged because pollution reduction credits are so valuable that there are entire new businesses, and networks of businesses, created purely to create these reductions.
"We are seeing phenomenal innovations at every level of industry, with opportunities at each level of the investment cycle. Venture capital investment opportunities abound in clean technology, and many funds are emerging to back new clean and green technologies that clean up the environment.
"There are private equity opportunities in leading companies and consulting groups that are addressing these market sectors. Meanwhile, new types of merchant banks are sourcing, creating and trading carbon credits."
Beckstrom, who also serves on the board of Environmental Defense (ED), the leading environmental group that co-authored the Kyoto Protocol, continues: "Global warming is clearly one of the greatest political and scientific challenges that we face, threatening life on many levels. However, a solution could be at hand through global business, if countries can create binding markets that reduce greenhouse gas levels in the atmosphere."
According to Point Carbon's research the global carbon market in 2006 saw transactions for 1.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide, compared to 799 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2005, worth $12 billion. The think-tank also predicts that the carbon market will double to reach 2.4 billion tonnes this year.
The EU Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) held the highest financial value in 2006, says the research. In total the brokered and the exchanged market was worth $20 billion. The direct bilateral market (company-to-company) doubled in size between 2005 and 2006, to reach a value of $5 billion.
The future for carbon continues to look bright, according to Point Carbon. It believes that a "new and broader climate agreement is likely post-2012". And with US re-engagement and Chinese commitments, its research says: "We expect that we will see the emergence of a truly global carbon market in the years to come."
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