Capping and trading carbon emissions will not be enough to fight output of the gases blamed for warming the planet, Ken Newcombe, managing director of Goldman Sachs' US carbon emissions desk said.
The cap and trade programmes have huge potential in the US, the world's largest energy consumer. However, the government research and development budgets should also be boosted to complement cap and trade's potential to spur innovations and investments in carbon-cutting techniques. Capturing carbon dioxide emissions at coal and natural gas-burning power plants for permanent burial underground is one unproven technology that is expensive, while other technologies, such as cutting vehicles emissions, may also need research funds. The US Congress is considering several bills that would aim to cut emissions by capping them and creating a market to trade credits representing them. So far, the centre of global climate trade has been based in Europe, which ratified the Kyoto Protocol and set up mandatory emissions trade. Billions of dollars worth of emissions credits have traded hands in Europe, but red tape has also delayed trade in carbon offsets, or investments in emissions reductions in developing countries.
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