Carbon market reached $US10 billion in 2005: The report which covered the period from January 1, 2005 to March 31, 2006 recorded a booming global market worth over US$10 billion in 2005, ten times the value of the previous year. "To put that figure in perspective, the entire US wheat crop in 2005 was valued at about US$7.1 billion," said Karan Capoor, Senior Financial Specialist, World Bank and main author of the report.
Carbon a fully fledged commodity: The expert added: "The data makes it clear that carbon is now a financial commodity. Carbon is now priced and business managers take the carbon price into consideration along with other factors in making business decisions.
Instability comes with the territory: "But like other financial commodities, the events of the last two weeks in the EU ETS shows that markets can be volatile." Capoor was referring to the fact that the price of carbon credits in the European Union dropped to a 12-month low last week, after several European countries reported that their 2005 emissions were below quota, dampening demand for pollution-permitting carbon credits.
Developing countries behind emissions reductions: The 2006 State of the Carbon Market Report shows explosive growth in allowance markets, making them for the second year the main driver of growth of the market. European Union trades dominated the carbon market in terms of value – 75 percent in 2005 – but almost half of the total volume of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions came from the developing world, making developing countries meaningful participants in the drive to reduce climate altering greenhouse gases on the Earth.
Reference: The World Bank, 10 May 2006. Contact: Anita Gordon, +1 202 436 4791 or 202 473 1799, agordon@worldbank.org ; Sergio Jellinek, 202 294 6232, Sjellinek@worldbank.org For more information, please visit the websites: http://www.carbonfinance.org http://www.ieta.org Or visit the report Online: http://carbonfinance.org/Router.cfm?Page=DocLib&CatalogID=27336