Overview
The emerging markets and regulations designed to manage greenhouse gas emissions and to mitigate the impacts of climate change are part of a complex and not easily understood tangle of politics, policy, business interests, self-interests, and environmentalism. There is a need for simplicity and clarity – one of the reasons for this Primer on Climate Change and Carbon Trading, developed by GLOBE Advisors, a division of the GLOBE Group.
Primer on Climate Change & Carbon Trading (2012)
This Primer is an update to GLOBE’s 2009 Carbon Report and is designed to provide some background on the current science and policies designed to address climate change. It also serves as an overview to the current status of carbon markets, describing the various players and detailing the schemes designed to facilitate emissions trading.
The Primer addresses the concept of trading carbon credits as a mechanism for meeting emissions reduction targets, and the rise of the corresponding carbon-trading market. The link between trading systems and the rise of green technologies is established in the report, with a discussion on developments in both renewable and non-renewable energy technologies.
An instructive starting place, the Primer sifts through a very complex and often confusing array of facts and choices related to climate change, helping readers come to grips with what clearly is the most critical challenge facing mankind today.
While the future of carbon markets is uncertain, the wheels are in motion to affect measurable changes that counter the human activities that accelerate climate change.