Carbon Trading: the New Big Thing?
The New York Times (July 6, 2007: “In London’s Financial World, Carbon Trading Is the New Big Thing”) reported that within three years carbon dioxide trading has become very popular in London’s financial world. It noted that managing emissions has become one of the fastest-growing specialties in financial services, and companies are scrambling to find workers – their goal is a slice of a market now worth about $30 billion and that could grow to $1 trillion within a decade. More carbon was traded in London than in any other city – this is largely the result of a decision by European governments to start limiting the amounts that industries emit. Numerous investment banks are increasing the numbers of staff on their emission trading teams to keep up with this expanding market. Prospects for the industry are good, especially if the United States joins the Europeans in establishing a trading system.
Since carbon dioxide trading has become very popular in the London financial market and as a result companies are looking to expand their emission trading teams, we should continue to monitor this trend as it will likely spread to markets outside of London and become a big industry. It is evident that the financial world is finding environmental issues to be useful and important when evaluating businesses.
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