Introduction

Don't lose the plot

Henry Derwent warns of pitfalls ahead during a year of intense policy-making activity around emissions trading

Avoided Deforestation

REDD under way

Joshua Speckman reports on the first avoided deforestation projects coming to market – and how their developers and investors are navigating a jungle of uncertainties

Forestry

A carbon market solution

With forestry set to play a more prominent role in global carbon markets after 2012, Scott Settelmyer and Bernhard Schlamadinger suggest how policy-makers could avoid earlier failures

China

Overly protective?

Efforts by the Chinese authorities to protect domestic CDM developers may risk undermining their market, says Lucy Mortimer

Market Infrastructure

Operational at last

Christoph Sutter and Angela Knill welcome the longawaited launch of a crucial part of the Kyoto trading infrastructure – the International Transaction Log

Clean Development Mechanism

Towards increased audit quality

Abhishek Goyal and Martin Schröder examine efforts to bring much-needed consistency to the validation and verification of CDM projects

US Market

Building in efficiency

Granville Martin, Ben Feldman and Kedin Kilgore suggest how US federal climate policy might balance economic efficiency and environmental integrity

Clean Development Mechanism

Writing the rule book

A new online resource is designed to help developers find their way around the rules governing the CDM. Paul Curnow and Louisa Fitz-Gerald explain

US Market

Making the case for carbon offsets

US cap-and-trade legislation risks closing the door on the use of greenhouse gas offset credits, warn Aimee Barnes, Bruce Braine and Marisa Buchanan

Joint Implementation

The momentum is building

Morten Prehn Sorensen reports on how, finally, developers are beginning to bring JI projects to market

Japan

On the cusp, or some way off?

Japan’s G8 presidency has brought an increased focus on emissions trading. But, asks Ken Yamaguchi, how fast is Tokyo likely to move?

Australia

Transforming the landscape

It’s all change in Australia following December’s defeat of climate-laggard Prime Minister John Howard. Petrea Bradford and Adam Kirkman review a fast-changing policy landscape

Auctioning

Under the hammer

Auctioning is likely to become a more prominent feature of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme – and other trading schemes, says Nicholas Haslam

Human Resources

Staff wanted

Caitlin Randall talks to headhunters, investment bankers and project developers to take the pulse of the carbon jobs market

Glossary

Key carbon market terms