.jpg)
City Minister and Economic Secretary to the Treasury Kitty Ussher today called for London to aspire to be the global centre for carbon trading.
Speaking at an Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales event held in London, Kitty Ussher said that credible, effective and accountable carbon trading would not only help to address the challenge of climate change, but also further strengthen London’s position as a global financial centre by making it well placed to capitalise on the growth in the global carbon trading market.
Kitty Ussher said:
“The UK’s wealth of expertise in this area – its position in international discussions on tackling climate change, experience of policy solutions such as trading, and its well-developed financial services system -presents real opportunities.
“I want to see London becoming the global centre for carbon trading. That’ll be good news for the financial services sector and will bring further jobs and opportunties across the UK, as well as helping to protect the environment for future generations.”
The global carbon trading market is already worth $30 billion a year and is expected to increase significantly in future. The annual turnover of the environmental goods and services sector is more than £25 billion in the UK, and is expected to roughly double by 2015, creating at least 100,000 jobs.
Kitty Ussher said that carbon pricing is an important way of tackling climate change, but can only be fully effective if a global price can be created – and so a global carbon market.
“The simple, market-based concept of putting a price on carbon makes people notice, and think about the emissions they’re causing – and it means that emissions can be reduced where it’s most efficient. Carbon trading will provide further opportunities for a green and growing economy and will lead to more investment in clean technology and in energy efficiency, something that will benefit us all now and in the future.”
Background
1. Kitty Ussher’s speech at the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales is available on the Treasury website.
2. The Government strongly supports the EU Emissions Trading Scheme and wants it to be strengthened in the future, with limits that tighten over time to create scarcity, and expanded – to cover more sectors and more gases, and also to link, eventually, with schemes in other countries as a step towards a global system.
3. The Government is working with California and other American states to try to ensure that carbon-trading systems are compatible as they are developed, so that it will be possible to trade between them.
.
