Published: June 2, 2011
World Bank announces decline after five years of growth.
The value of the global carbon market fell last year following five years of growth, according to a report published by the World Bank.
The State and Trends of the Carbon Market 2011 claims that the value of the market stood at US$142bn last year, slightly down on the US$144bn achieved in 2009. “After five consecutive years of robust growth the carbon markets stalled,” said Alexandre Kossoy, a senior financial specialist at the World Bank.
“However, the level of GHG emissions did not,” Kossoy added “Not for the first time in the past decade, 2010 was also the hottest year on record.”
Reasons for the decline include uncertainty over the market after 2012, when the current period for trading credits expires, and buyers from industrialised countries generating less greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
These contributed to a 46% drop in new project-based transactions, which totalled US$1.5bn. “The value of the primary CDM market fell substantially in 2010, lower than it was in 2005, the first year of the Kyoto Protocol,” Kossoy said.
Europe remained the carbon market’s largest contributor. The EU’s emissions trading scheme (ETS) accounted for 84% of the market’s value in 2010.
When secondary CDM transactions, which encompasses all transactions following the primary sale, are added, ETS activity accounted for 97% of the total.