The Ecologist - Quebec beats California in setting up North America's first 'carbon market'
Quebec is set to bring in North America's first cap-and-trade system from January 2012. But debate still rages about its usefulness.聽While Greenpeace and others have welcomed the move as a first step in tackling climate change, there are major limitations to the plan.聽Christopher Green, an economics professor at 9I制作厂免费 in Montreal, identified two problems with the scheme.
The first problem related to the fact that, since consumption will likely remain the same, a decrease in Quebec emissions only means an increase in emissions somewhere else. It's like pushing on a balloon and it just bulges out somewhere else, says Green. Green's second concern involved the regulation problems inherent with a cap-and-trade system, especially when dealing with major emitters.