If newly proposed EU legislation is passed – which is not certain – the overall supply of emission rights will be reduced, as will grants of free ones.
And, as with crypto, there is the promise of big long-term gains.
Vicky Pollard, deputy head of the economic analysis unit in the EU’s directorate-general for climate action , points out: “The EU ETS has existed since 2005.
The latest proposed revision will require them, along with the newly included maritime transport sector, to reduce by 2030 61% of their 2005 emission levels.
Voluntary markets have been a sideshow to all this, but they are generating all the headlines in Glasgow for the simple reason that governments have failed to legislate and impose binding and effective carbon pricing.
They are mostly data-driven and innovative and there are high-quality carbon offsets that can be a great tool for companies to decarbonize alongside their work to reduce their own emissions.
Others see a direct link from removal to highly beneficial nature-based solutions: better, they say, to put efforts now into restoring forests and mangrove swamps while they still exist.
It seems to Euromoney that the elephant in the room is that none of the schemes directly pass on or make apparent to individuals the cost of the carbon in the petrol they put into their cars, their holiday flights or other consumer products.