State and Trends of the Carbon Market 2011

This report covers many of the issues facing the carbon market today. The overview provides high- lights from the report and information on the size of the carbon market.

After five consecutive years of robust growth, the total value of the global carbon market stalled at $142 billion. Suffering from the lack of post-2012 regulatory clarity, the value of the primary Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) market fell by double-digits for the third year in a row, ending lower than it was in 2005, the first year of the Kyoto Protocol.

The Assigned Amount Unit (AAU) market, which grew in 2009 with strong sovereign support, shrank as well in 2010. Finally, the market that had grown most in 2009 — allowances under the U.S. Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) — saw that year’s gains erased in 2010.