Green Policies: Carbon Credit Markets in Action

As I have sought to highlight in recent posts, there is great debate in international discourse concerning the respective roles of developed and developing nations in the struggle to cut greenhouse emissions. U.S. reluctance to sign on to the Kyoto Protocol is in large part perpetuated, rightly or wrongly, by the failure of other big emitters like India and China to do so. However those skeptical of the U.S. position contend that America is sufficiently wealthy to effect the necessary changes if only there were political will. The economies of India and China continue to expand by volumes and with no end in sight; this expansion often wreaks devastating environmental destruction.

All of this begs one question: must the costs of clean development necessarily be prohibitive for developing nations? The answer, of course, is only maybe. See what Mexico’s state oil producer is doing on this front.

Eliza Barclay Reports