AFX - Global Ethics Monitor

When the Earth Summit started in Johannesburg a week ago expectations were low. There were no major treaties or conventions on the agenda and several countries -- including the US -- had indicated they were against setting any form of targets or timetables aimed at reducing world poverty, protecting the environment, or ensuring sustainable development. And yet, despite this opposition, a number of businesses and activists working on issues of renewable energy remained hopeful that the Summit, at the instigation of the European Union, would agree on a… more

The decade-old global trade in pollution credits, poised to skyrocket in the near future, began as an idea that didn't please either side of the debate over environment and development.

When the first emissions market opened in Chicago in 1993, some utilities complained that government was imposing too heavy a burden on their industry and hurting consumers.

Environmentalists, on the other hand, considered emissions trading a loophole that would enable business to continue polluting.

As it turned out, they were both wrong.

The Chicago Board of Trade began… more