Carbon jackpot

Emission trading scheme in the European Union, has long been criticized for being ineffective in reducing industrial air pollution and are said to increase profitability of the heavy polluters. The EU greenhouse gases should have been reduced by 8% by the year 2012, compared with the year 1990 levels under the Kyoto protocol, and new targets aim to reduce carbon emissions by 20% by the year 2020. Carbon trading and offsetting, which is the biggest practice of the EU scheme, was expected to offer incentives to industry to cut down their pollution, but criticizers have claimed that massive overallocation caused by the price of carbon to drop by more than 60% have created more disincentive for industries to lower their emissions. The EU, by effective implementation of the emission trading scheme during its second phase, from 2008 to 2012, can prove the carbon trading as a viable way to reduce emission.