Initiative to link up trading schemes
Representatives of several European governments, the EU Commission, the Portuguese Presidency as well as several US state governments and Canadian provinces agreed today in Lisbon on an international emissions trading partnership named ICAP (International Carbon Action Partnership). The purpose of ICAP is to link up emissions trading schemes in existence and planned in different parts of the globe.
The political declaration issued at the end of the Lisbon meeting states that: "Market-based solutions in the form of cap-and-trade are a key component of our comprehensive policies to combat climate change". Among those who signed the declaration are EU Commissioner Stavros Dimas, Federal Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, Norway’s Finance Minister Kristin Halvorsen, Gouvernours Jon Corzine (New Jersey) and Eliot Spitzer (New York) and Prime Minister Gordon Campbell of British Columbia.
Federal Environment Minister Gabriel welcomed the initiative for the Federal Government. "This alliance may well become the centrepiece of a worldwide emissions trading scheme" Gabriel noted. He mentioned the rapidly growing volume in carbon trading which already reached a level of more than 20 billion euros in 2006. Experts estimate the volume will rise to 50 to 800 billion euros by 2025. "We should not forgo the opportunity to make use of this potential", the Minister added.
Originally ICAP was an initiative started by California, Germany and the United Kingdom to set up a global carbon market. At the moment the initiative includes the EU, the US states of the "Western Climate Initiative - WCI" and the North Eastern states of the "Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative - RGGI". ICAP is also open to other states, in particular to those who will launch binding emissions trading schemes in the near future such as New Zealand and Australia. The initiative fits in with and supplements the current UN negotiations on the process for an international post-Kyoto climate change regime.