Good Europe

If there's a silver lining to Europe's signing of the Kyoto global-warming treaty, it is this:

Seven months after the Kyoto global warming accord took effect, Europeans are transforming their economies to meet the treaty's requirement of curbs in greenhouse gas emissions.

And central to that effort is an American-backed, free-market approach that Europe initially resisted: Buying and selling the right to pollute.

[...]

The market kicked off just nine months ago, but earlier this month, the European Carbon Exchange in Amsterdam, the main trading venue for emissions credits, announced that it had reached a milestone of 50 million tons of carbon dioxide traded. The right to emit a ton of carbon, which began trading at about $10, is currently going for $27.60, an increase that analysts say signals a healthy market.

The EU program is a forerunner to the larger Kyoto emissions trading system, which starts in 2008 for all Kyoto signatories, including Russia and Japan.

More on Europe emissions market here.

Want to buy or sell pollution here in the U.S.? Head on over to the Chicago Climate Exchange, which bills itself as "the world's first and North America's only voluntary, legally binding rules-based greenhouse gas emission reduction and trading system."

[Cross-posted at The Agitator.]