Trading the Earth: The politics behind tradeable pollution rights

[Extract] Tradeable pollution rights and emissions trading are being increasingly used as an environmental policy tool for pollution control. It allows firms to trade the right to emit specific pollutants. Tradeable pollution rights were originally developed in the USA to cut costs to industry and enable economic growth to continue in highly polluted areas but they are increasingly being used in other countries for air (Moore 1994) and water pollution (James 1994). They are now being proposed as a method for meeting Kyoto Protocol targets for greenhouse gas emissions. Firms such as BP and Shell have already established internal carbon trading systems (O’Brien 2000) and Canada has approved a privately run internet-based greenhouse gas emission reduction exchange (KEFIExchange 2000).