Global Carbon Market Hits $176 Billion in 2011
By Jo Nova
Global Carbon Market trading climbed to $176 billion in 2011 according to the The World Bank, which has just released it’s annual State and Trends of The Carbon Market in 2012. That makes it about the same value as total global wheat production — which supplies about 20% of the calories consumed by the 7 billion people on planet Earth.
The global carbon market disguises itself as an angel against the greedy corporates. Yet it is, itself, a giant corporate playing field. The mainstream media remains largely silent on the “vested interests” represented by this major industry that did not even exist 10 years ago.
Was 2011 the peak of global carbon trading? Looks all downhill from here.
A record number of emissions products were traded in 2011, even though prices of EU carbon permits and international offsets fells well below $10 a tonne late in the year. The prices have fallen, but the volumes have increased. Look out, the average price in 2011 was $18.80US, but the prices in 2012 are less than half that. It will take a monster increase in volumes in 2012 to keep raising the total market value.
The Global Carbon Market was still growing in 2011, but not exponentially like it was from 2005 – 2009. The bad news (for carbon traders) is about to hit the fan in the next report in 2013. There is a hint of it in the page announcing the report: “the market for primary CDM has dropped to its lowest level since 2004.”
WUWT [Global carbon market expected to crash] is already #1 on a Google search. Keep talking about a carbon market crash and it will happen. Excellent!
Wait ’til the suckers –ummmmm– investors realize they’ve been buying futures in hot air…
“which has just released it’s annual…”
*its
Ha! Maybe we can all make Al Gore-ish millions shorting the market until it collapses in a heap.
But beware – I seem to recall the last time the bottom fell out of it the EU Parliament simply changed the rules and nailed the price to the perch. As if there wasn’t enough evidence that this is a ‘political’ rather than a free market.
There’s only one way to make money out of carbon and that is by burning it. Does the planet a power of good too.
Australia. $22 Aus per tonne. Economic suicide before your very eyes.
The beautiful thing is that the tax is being introduced during the most intense cold snap for decades!
I will toast this news with a beer and burp out the C02
Don’t worry about carbon trading there is more reality to worry about—-the collapse of the Euro, with Spain today asking for direct help for its banks, Greece about to pull out in about 2 weeks, Portugal still in trouble after being helped, Italy about to tip into the void of failure and all this on the backs of the German people who, understandably, do not want to help.
Oh the joys of Europe and the Eurozone big idea.
Thank goodness we still have control over our own currency in the UK. We might have problems but we are our own people not totally controlled by some left wing Eurocrats in Brussels.
Good. When all the profit goes away, the “science” will go away.
It seems to me people do not understand what the real debate is about.
Scientists have shown that earth has not warmed since the beginning of this century.
In fact, my own (totally independent) investigations lead me to believe that earth has cooled since that time.
http://www.letterdash.com/henryp/global-cooling-is-here
There is no “carbon market”, simply because it is a non-issue.
In related news, a excellent article in FP about new oil finds and how they relate to the AGW meme and the upcoming Rio+20. I suspect the lack of enthusiasm by major world leader will bury the carbon market forever.
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Just months after an enormous discovery of natural gas off the coast of Israel, a local company has reported another potentially big strike — an estimated 1.4 billion barrels of oil, in addition to more natural gas. The company, Israel Opportunity Energy Resources, says it will start drilling by the end of the year. All of a sudden, Israel has found itself a focus of the world’s hydrocarbon interest.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/06/05/can_we_survive_the_new_golden_age_of_oil?page=0,0
Still $176B is a fair chunk of change, and the people putting that in their pocket are not going to let it go easily
I create fiction too, but I can never sell mine. I only get rejection slips. I’m jealous.
Another dot com bust coming. This time in carbon trading.
Carbon trading has zero real value and it has ” about the same value as total global wheat production — which supplies about 20% of the calories consumed by the 7 billion people on planet Earth.”
Hey eco greenies, couldn’t all that money be spent on something real, that would benefit the third world population??
I found an article from Rolling Stone that deals with Goldman Sachs’s role in developing cap & trade. Blogged it here:
http://quidsapio.wordpress.com/2012/06/06/how-goldman-sachs-invented-cap-and-trade/
Well, sure–carbon is only valuable as CO2 in the atmosphere to make plants grow. Even dummies recognize that eventually. (Or do we have some traders that refuse to eat?)
In BC the carbon market is being used to siphon off taxpayer money from the school system, which by law must be carbon neutral. This money is then being used by corporations to fund relocation of their CO2 intensive operations offshore.
For example, instead of using taxpayer money to install an energy efficient new furnace, the schools are required to use this money to buy carbon credits. Companies with connections create these credits by for example shutting down a CO2 producing facility in BC. This taxpayer money is then used by the companies involved to set up a new facility in China to replace the facility shut down in BC, with a nice campaign contribution to the party in power as a reward for their help.
The result, the schools are left with an old furnace, but are “carbon neutral:. TV companies become rich running government (taxpayer funded) ads telling us how wonderful this all is, that BC is carbon neutral. Taxpayer’s get to sleep well knowing that their tax dollars are being spend so wisely to “Keep BC Green”. The government gets to sleep well, knowing their campaign funds are well stocked for the next election.
The businesses involved get to sleep well knowing they have been paid to replace their old plants with newer, more efficient plants. The Chinese are happy, because the money invested in China is now flowing back to BC, where it is being used to buy large volumes of real estate. Plane loads of Chinese arrive in Vancouver each day, are driven by agents to prospective properties, place an offer and are back in the planes. The homeowners are happy, they get a large payout and no longer have to pay the sky-high property taxes that are the source of the school taxes.
That is the power of carbon trading.
Which is why all the emphasis now for carbon taxes from everyone ..
Peak carbon? Should we worry?
So much money …… so little value.
Basically the various UN agencies, the OECD (which we provide a big part of the funding for), and the World Bank are all using our money to adopt policies to push us towards a post-GDP theoretical Green economy whether we like it or not. Whether we are aware or not.
But don’t worry since history shows that planned and managed economies in complex societies have poor economic results we will use education to make sure the future citizens learn to appreciate values more than things.
If a regulator or bureaucrat “creates” a market, it’s not a market at all.
Robin said:
“Basically the various UN agencies, the OECD (which we provide a big part of the funding for), and the World Bank are all using our money to adopt policies to push us towards a post-GDP theoretical Green economy whether we like it or not. Whether we are aware or not.”
Actually I’m not sure it’s as ideological as that. If you check out the article I’ve reblogged you can see Goldman Sachs were in on the ground floor with carbon trading, and there’s always been a powerful sector of multinational bankers and traders lobbying for action on “global warming”. That’s the angle that really sells the deeper agenda to me.
Carbon Climate Forcing is using Climatology Default Swap Science to FORCE Carbon Commodity Marketting….always was….always will be. Seven billion people on this planet NEED wheat. Several thousand stock/bond manipulators NEED Carbon credits. It is time to starve that market.
It would be great to know how many pension funds are salted with these investments. Do you suppose pensioners would like to know?