Those Capitalist Bastards!

Friday's FT reports on how the infrastructure for trading carbon dioxide emission rights both spot and forward, is now being put in place in Europe to coincide with the new EU regulations.

More than a dozen years since the trading of carbon emissions was first proposed, Europe's first exchanges are finally gearing up for business. At least six so far have stepped forward with emissions trading platforms, with possibly more to come, many of them potentially vying to lead a unified pan-European market.

Prices seem to be high enough to give an incentive to sell off a surplus, but not too extortionate:

A single allowance, permitting one tonne of CO emissions, was trading at €8.50 before Christmas on the over-the-counter market but this week has fallen to €6.85.

, compared to the $55 per tonne carbon tax in Norway, which seems to be driving the search for CO2 sequestration solutions.