Product Description

Written in a fast-paced journalistic style, this updated edition draws together all the key information on international voluntary carbon markets with commentary from leading practitioners and business people. The book covers all aspects of voluntary carbon markets around the world: what they are, how they work and, most critically, their business potential to help slow climate change.

The new edition contains: updated data on credit prices, transaction volumes, major industry players, and other quantitative data through 2007 and 2008, as well as revised analysis reflecting these shifts; explanations of additional offset project type categories, providing prospective buyers and project developers with a more detailed understanding of the suite of offset projects available; insights into market trends and policy developments that have occurred since the publication of the last edition; an updated "glance into the future" of the voluntary carbon markets, reflecting the market
trends that emerged from late 2006 through early 2008.

This book is a project of Ecosystem Marketplace

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #460878 in Books
• Published on: 2009-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 184 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781844075614
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
'Describes a remarkable area of innovation in the fight to control global warming' Al Gore

About the Author
Amanda Hawn is Manager of Advisory Services at New Forests.

Ricardo Bayon is a co-founder of EKO Asset Management Partners.

Katherine Hamilton is the Associate Director of Ecosystem Marketplace.

Customer Reviews

Mediocre overview of voluntary markets
This book comes across as perfunctory and haphazard in its presentation and in the issues it chooses to highlight (quality issues, regulatory concerns, overlap with other emissions markets). Most of the essays are from start-up firms and independent consultants, who all have their own agendas and opinions, which end up giving the book an air of corporate bias. Most essays are rarely longer than two or three pages and feature little to no historical perspective or comparisons to other, established environmental markets. The book itself has only 120 pages worth of raw material; the rest is filler consisting of company descriptions and pithy emissions-reduction project descriptions which one can find anywhere.

Indeed, most of the information in this book can be gleaned from an hour or two surfing the internet at major carbon and "green" sites, as well as company webpages that specialize in carbon emission reductions.

The essays contain a significant amount of overlap and repetition, and none of them are in-depth enough (qualitatively or quantitatively) to offer true insight; none of the articles have raw numbers or charts about pricing and reductions taking place. To make matters worse, much of the material is already out of date, owing to the fast-growing nature of the voluntary carbon market.

Mark Trexler's two essays (about interactions with the renewable energy credit market and about quality control of voluntary credits) are among the best in the book, but why read them here when they are available for free on the internet?

The slapdash nature of the book and the superficial analysis make this book non-critical. I give this book two stars because it at least serves as some type of introduction to the field, though true experts will find nothing of value in the book.

As a final note, the foreword by Al Gore is short, fluffy and only tangentially refers to voluntary carbon markets at the very end. One would be better off reading his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, which is far more substantial.

Voluntary Carbon Markets
Excellent primer on the evolving international and US carbon markets, and a vital read for those considering entry.

it is voluntary [for now]
The most prominent thing about this book is of course the foreword by Al Gore. But whatever you might think of Gore's political views, the bulk of the text is a sober look at what it means to have a voluntary carbon market. As opposed to having government mandates.

Much of the book is uncertain. Not really about global warming per se. The book does not discuss significantly or really debate whether global warming is real. It is more or less taken as a given. Rather, the book's uncertainly revolves about what types of voluntary trading markets might arise. Voluntary because the US government has not made up its mind about federal requirements. Hence the biggest question is why should a US based company engage in such trading?

Candidly, and this will peeve some readers, it is mostly for public relations at this point in time. The book gives several reasons why it might be beneficial to trade. Like anticipating an eventual government edict about minimising pollution through such trades. So a far sighted multinational might venture a small gamble by engaging in some trades, and loudly touting its green credentials. The book does not come right out and say this. But a careful parsing suggests this view.