Tuesday, February 16, 2010

The Positive And Negative Aspects Of Carbon Trading

By Anthony Oswald

Given the increasing concern about global warming and greater carbon emissions into the air, governments and other agencies are looking for viable alternatives to lower pollution. Among many other strategies for resolving this issue, carbon trading and carbon offset have been highly successful.

Companies buy carbon credits that are available in the market in the carbon trading model. These credits decide the amount of greenhouse gases that organizations can release above their allotted quota without incurring a penalty.

The main advantage of the carbon trading concept is the encouragement that it gives for releasing lower amounts of gases. The system wants companies to realize that the cost of adopting ecologically sustainable methods of doing business is lower than the cost of carbon credits. If a company is made to pay for polluting the air then it will try to embrace methods that are greener if it desires to remain competitive. As a greater number of companies follow this system, in due course the overall emissions around the world will decline gradually, bringing about a positive change in the environment.

Another significant advantage of carbon trading is that it is based on an open market system where any firm can purchase or sell carbon credits. This system does not include any government intrusion such as collection of fines or framing regional regulations, which increases its efficacy.

The biggest problem however with carbon trading is that a global structure for trading is yet to be formulated. As most of the trading takes place in the global markets, it is difficult for some regional businesses to adhere to this system.

A few companies are disinclined to opt for this system, as they do not want to make expenditure that cannot be passed on to their customers. Moreover, a lot of small businesses are unable to incur the expenses required for buying new equipments and developing new processes to lower their emissions. Therefore, they are caught in a situation that forces them to incur the costs of carbon credits repeatedly and thus they fall behind in the race against bigger organizations.

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